Organization of Turkic States summit to start Friday in Uzbekistan

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - The leaders of Turkic nations are set to meet in the historical city of Samarkand on Friday, hosted by Central Asian nation Uzbekistan, according to a statement by the Organization of Turkic States.

The theme of the leaders' summit will be "New era for the Turkic civilization: Towards common development and prosperity," the international organization of five full members, namely Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, said on Wednesday.

With a busy agenda the leaders will "take decisions on several important issues as well as finalize various agreements and official documents" of the organization's projects in the fields of economy, trade, transport, and customs, it said.

The summit will be a "major milestone" for the organization, hosting discussions on "key issues of multilateral cooperation" between the members and observer state Hungary, as well as on several political and economic developments in the region and beyond."

Türkiye will pass the rotating chairmanship of the organization to Uzbekistan at the end of the summit as the leaders "ink the Samarkand Declaration together with a series of resolutions" including managerial appointments in the organization's Secretariat.

"Prior to the Summit, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OTS (Organization of Turkic States) will meet in Samarkand on 10 November 2021, in order to carry out the final work on the agenda items and the documents to be signed by the Heads of State," it added.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakhstan's President Kasim-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and the organization's Secretary-General Baghdad Amreyev will be attending the summit, along with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, former president of Turkmenistan and current head of its upper house of parliament.