Summit to adopt declaration, plan of action
Abbasi to meet heads of states on sidelines of summit
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi would depart for Turkey on Thursday to lead Pakistan’s delegation for the D-8 summit being held on October 20, 2017.
Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif is attending the 17th Council of Ministers meeting that will precede the summit. This is the 9th summit of the Developing-8 (D-8)—Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
Pakistan is the current chair of the D-8. It assumed the chair at the 8th summit of D-8, which was held in Islamabad on November 2012. Pakistan continued to hold the chair beyond the normal period of two years.
During Islamabad summit in November 2012, two landmark documents were signed, including the D-8 Charter and the Global Vision.
At the summit, the prime minister will hand over the chairmanship of the summit to Turkey. The Istanbul summit is expected to adopt a declaration as well as a plan of action.
Major areas of cooperation in D-8 charter include industry, agriculture and food security, energy, trade, transportation and tourism.
The latest summit will also be an occasion to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the organisation. On the sidelines of the summit, the PM is expected to interact with the leaders of D-8 member states.
It is pertinent to mention here that since assuming office, this will be PM Abbasi’s first visit to Turkey.
The idea of cooperation among major Muslim developing countries was mooted by Prof Dr Necmettin Erbakan, the then prime minister of Turkey, during a Seminar on “Cooperation in Development,” which was held in Istanbul in October 1996. The group envisioned cooperation among countries stretching from Southeast Asia to Africa. Representatives from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan attended the seminar. This conference was the first step towards the establishment of D-8, and it was only after a series of preparatory meetings that D-8 was set up officially and began its activities with the Istanbul Declaration issued at the end of the summit of heads of state and government held in Istanbul on June 15, 1997.
