Kazakhstan Holds Informal Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States

Nur-Sultan, MINA – Member states of the Turkic Council participated in an informal online summit at the initiative of Kazakhstan on March 31, 2021.

In a release, the informal summit held the theme “Turkistan – Spiritual Capital of the Turkic World”.

The summit was opened and moderated by the Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and was attended by the First President of Kazakhstan – Honorary Chairman of the Turkic Council, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Also Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Uzbek leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for Turkic Speaking States Baghdad Amreyev.

As the moderator of the Summit, President Tokayev gave the first word to Nursultan Nazarbayev, and then gave space to all the participants to speak in alphabetical order.

In his opening statement Nazarbayev emphasised the role of the Latin alphabet for the Turkic world.

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“Along with humanitarian and cultural development, we can learn a lot from each other. The use of the Latin alphabet gives us a common system, thanks to which we get the opportunity to contribute to the development of our youth at the global level. It is important for us to develop together,” he said.

He also proposed to raise the level of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States to the level of the Organization.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the Council wants to introduce the world to its heritage and Turkestan, a historical city located in Kazakhstan, which on the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev was radically transformed and acquired a new look.

He added that the Council aims to turn the Turkic world into a strategically important economic and cultural region in the world.

President Tokayev noted that despite the fact that the whole world is struggling with unprecedented challenges, the cooperation of the Turkic Speaking states did not slow down.

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Meanwhile, in this difficult period, states need to jointly seek new impulses to strengthen relations.

Speaking on the global pandemic, Tokayev said that the international community acted in a fragmented manner in the fight against the pandemic.

He added that because of the contradictions between major countries, the so-called “vaccine wars” began. In these difficult circumstances, the United Nations was also unable to use its potential.

The Kazakh President insisted that problems of health care and biosafety are of particular relevance in the current situation.

The President also noted the need to speed up the work on the creation of the Turkic Investment and Integration Fund. This is the first joint financial institution of the Turkic Speaking states, with Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) to be the headquarter.

President Tokayev emphasised the import of AIFC as a platform that combines the best experience of the international financial institutions and modern tools.

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During the summit, leaders of the member states discussed ways and plans to develop the cooperation in terms of trade, economy, culture, and humanitarian issues.

The Turkic Council which was established on the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2009 has five member states including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Along with Hungary which is the one observer state.

Kazakhstan was chairing the council in 2019-2020, while seven summits were held since the inception of the Council.

Kazakhstan became a member of the Council in 2009, since then, the country hosted two summits, in Almaty 2011 and in Nur-Sultan in 2015.

In 2008, the Assembly of Turkic-Speaking Countries (TurkPA) was established.

The TurkPA is an observer in various international organisations including the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (PUIC).(R/R1/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)