President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will travel to Budapest on Tuesday to attend the informal summit of the heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Hungary.
Hosted by Viktor Orban between May 20 and 21, the summit will be hosted by an observer country for the first time in OTS history. It will be held under the theme “The Meeting Point of East and West.”
The summit, which is expected to be attended by the heads of state of the member countries, is expected to address regional and global issues as well as increase cooperation between member countries. It is envisaged that the Budapest Declaration will be adopted at the end of the summit.
A number of important decisions and initiatives are also planned to be announced.
Ahead of the leaders’ summit, OTS foreign ministers will convene in Budapest to finalize the summit agenda and documents to be submitted for the consideration of the heads of state.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will accompany Erdoğan and is expected to deliver a key address on Wednesday, Turkish diplomatic sources said.
His participation follows his attendance at the previous Council of Foreign Ministers meeting held in Bishkek on Nov. 6, ahead of the 11th OTS summit.
In his upcoming speech, Fidan is anticipated to stress the growing relevance of the OTS amid global uncertainty.
He is expected to stress that in a period when the international system is going through difficult times in producing peace, stability, and justice, the OTS countries are steadily strengthening their cooperation through a sense of regional ownership.
He will also emphasize the importance of shared identity, saying that the OTS countries are parts of the greater Turkic world and this awareness should guide their actions.
The Turkish foreign minister is also expected to underscore efforts to enhance cooperation in vital sectors, not only to strengthen the institutional capacity and capabilities of the OTS but also to deepen ties in the fields of transportation, energy and sustainable development.
On the longstanding issue of Cyprus, Fidan will reaffirm Türkiye’s support for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), stressing a shared responsibility of the OTS to stand in solidarity with the Turkish Cypriots, who have been subjected to unjust and inhumane isolation for decades.
The Budapest meeting will constitute the first leaders’ meeting after reactions were drawn from Turkish officials after some OTS members’ deal with the EU to recognize the Greek Cypriot administration.
Some member countries of the OTS announced at the summit they held with the EU on April 4 that they would abide by U.N. Security Council Resolutions 541 and 550, which condemned the establishment of the TRNC and called on states not to recognize it, and decided to open embassies in the Greek Cypriot administration.
Trade to grow
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said that Türkiye “expects many cooperation issues from politics to trade, transportation to industry, culture to education to be comprehensively addressed” at the summit.
Noting that the trade volume between OTS member and observer countries reached $68.8 billion last year, he said that Türkiye’s trade volume with these countries was $30.9 billion.
The Budapest summit follows recent high-level engagements within the OTS, including an informal summit in Shusha on July 5-6, 2024 and the 11th summit in Bishkek on Nov. 6, 2024, where leaders reiterated their commitment to deeper solidarity and collaboration across the Turkic world.
The May 21 gathering is expected to result in the adoption of a joint declaration to expand interstate cooperation and institutional integration within the OTS.
Several official documents will also be signed. Looking ahead, the 12th OTS summit is slated to be held in Baku in the coming months.
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