President Ilham Aliyev attends D8 Summit in Istanbul

President Ilham Aliyev attends D8 Summit in Istanbul
# 20 October 2017 10:41 (UTC +04:00)

The summit of D-8 member countries – Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan – kicked off in Istanbul on Friday.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev is taking part in the Istanbul-hosted D-8 Summit as a special guest upon the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is the current chairman of the D-8, emphasized the importance of taking more decisive steps in order to strengthen economic-trade relations between member states.

He said they were unable to reach their targets at the Kuala Lumpur summit, noting that the 9th summit will focus on the importance of mutual interest and cooperation and the current level and development of economic ties.

“In the upcoming period, we’ll have to speed up our cooperation,” he said.

According to Prime Minister Abbasi, the obstacles faced by the private sector have to be eliminated so that economic ties can be improved. Abbasi said they are pleased to hand over the chairmanship to Turkey and assured that Pakistan would continue to provide all kinds of support to the organization.

Then Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a speech, expressing regret that injustice has not been eliminated since the D-8 was established in 1997.

“In recent years, we have witnessed the great wounds inflicted by terror attacks and economic crises. From Afghanistan to Iran, from Rakhine to Syria and Nigeria, we witnessed the struggles of our friends. We came to today by suffering though repeated economic crises that occurred almost every decade. In a world where there is such wealth, our African brothers and sisters struggle to meet their basic needs,” Erdogan said.

Recalling that the per capita average national income among member countries was $1,820 when the D-8 organization was established, the president said that this figure reached to $4,500 at present stressing the importance to boost the cooperation for further increase. President Erdogan said that today the main target is to raise the $100 billion trade turnover among the D-8 countries up to the $500 billion in future.

"There is no reason why we should allow our economies to melt under the pressure of exchange rates" the Turkish leader noted.

The president urged D-8 countries to boost participation in meetings, embrace its values and work to boost its productivity and strength.

"It is unacceptable for the D-8 to stay the same since we live in a world in which everything constantly changes" the president said, adding that the organization needs to be strengthened through the addition of new members.

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THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED