POLITICS
Bishkek hosts 2nd summit of Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking Countries
Baku, August 23 (AZERTAC). The second summit of Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking Countries was held Thursday in Bishkek.
The summit brought together presidents Abdullah Gul of Turkey, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan`s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade.
First a meeting of heads of delegations of the Cooperation Council`s member states was held.
President Almazbek Atambayev recalled that the Cooperation Council was established at the summit of Heads of States of Turkic Speaking Countries in Nakhchivan. He also spoke of what had been done to deepen relations among member states of the Council.
Presidents Abdullah Gul and Nursultan Nazarbayev underlined the necessity of expansion of economic and cultural cooperation among member states.
Addressing the summit Prime Minister Artur Rasizade said major economic, social and other infrastructure projects were being implemented in Azerbaijan. Rasizade praised the economic cooperation among member countries of the Council. He noted Azerbaijan`s goods turnover with other member states had increased by 55, 5 percent.
On the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Prime Minister called it as major problem of Azerbaijan. “Today Armenia continues to occupy the Azerbaijani territories. Due to official Yerevan`s unconstructive position, no important change has happened to settle the conflict. Armenia does not honor four resolutions adopted by the United Nations on unconditional withdrawal of its armed forces from the occupied territories.”
The summit participants discussed a number of issues, including expansion of relations among member states, particularly cooperation in cultural and education spheres, creation of Turkish Academy in the framework of the Council and common alphabet. Then plenary session was held underlining the necessity of deepening economic cooperation. The session participants also discussed issues on construction of transit railroad. They came to an agreement on a project of Turkey-Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea- Kazakhstan-China railroad. They also agreed to organize a meeting of transport ministers for preparation and implementation of a relevant protocol. The presidency of the Council was transferred from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan.
The governments of member states of the Cooperation Council adopted several documents - regulations of Turkish Cultural and Heritage Foundation, financial rules of the Secretariat of Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking Countries and final Declaration of the second summit of the Council.
The signing ceremony was followed by a press conference.
The 3rd summit of the Cooperation Council will be held next year in Baku.