Veep Jusuf Kalla Arrives in Turkey to Attend D-8 Summit

Jakarta, MINA – Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla arrived in Turkey on Thursday at around 7:30 a.m. local time to attend the 9th D-8 Leaders Summit in Istanbul on Friday, Antara News reported.

The D-8 is an organization for forging economic cooperation initiated in 1997 by eight developing countries: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.

During Friday’s summit, Kalla will deliver his state remarks and bear witness to the pledge of the Istanbul Declaration as a result of prior meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Commission on Oct 19 and Oct 17-18.

Earlier, Turkish Ambassador to Indonesia Sander Gurbuz had revealed that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will revitalize the D-8 summit to make it more active, as it has an important role to play for its members.

Turkey will utilize the momentum to intensify economic cooperation with Indonesia to follow up on President Joko Widodo’s visit to that country in July 2017.

Vice presidential spokesperson Husein Abdullah revealed that after attending the D-8 summit, Kalla is expected to perform Umrah, or minor hajj, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, before returning to Jakarta on Monday (Oct 23). (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)