President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the 9th Summit of the Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on November 10-11.
During the historic OTS Summit held under the theme “New Era for the Turkic Civilization: Towards Common Development and Prosperity", the leaders discussed recent regional and international developments, underlying the member and observer states' strong commitment to Turkic integration and the Turkic World Vision 2040.
In his remarks at the summit, President Erdoğan said, “We are going through a fragile period that offers both risks and opportunities for our countries. We see that now, more than ever, it is critical for us to strengthen our cooperation, solidarity, and harmony among ourselves."
Reminding that the historic summit held in Istanbul the previous year served as a milestone for the consolidation of institutional unity within the Turkic world, President Erdoğan stated, “It will be beneficial to put into practice the Turkic Investment Fund as soon as possible. I believe that the financial prospects of the fund will strengthen our cooperation and give momentum to our activities.
We attach importance to deepening our ties in trade, transportation, and energy. The Türkiye-Uzbekistan-Azerbaijan and the Türkiye-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan foreign affairs, transportation, trade, and economy ministerial meetings have all been critical steps we have timely taken." President Erdoğan was also presented with the Supreme Order of the Turkic World in Samarkand in recognition of his services to the Turkic communities by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at a ceremony.
The summit was also attended by the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Kassym Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the Chairman of the People's Council of the Turkmen Parliament Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and the then Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States Baghdad Amreyev.
OTS is an international body with growing global visibility and operates in over 20 areas of cooperation to bring the Turkic world together.