Azernews.Az

BAKU – Turkic countries’ leaders will gather in Istanbul Wednesday for talks on a slew of regional issues including cooperation prospects and conflicts.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is expected to attend the two-day meeting.

This time, the high-level summit of the Turkic-speaking Countries Cooperation Council will enjoy broader attendance. Diplomatic sources informed Cihan news agency, that Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan are expected to attend the İstanbul summit at the presidential level.

Participants will focus on such key areas of cooperation as the economy, energy, the environment, cultural and humanitarian relations as well as conflicts.

The Turkic summit includes a number of bilateral and trilateral meetings. The agenda includes President Aliyev’s separate meetings with the Turkish president and prime minister, as well as trilateral talks among the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan as well as those among the three countries’ energy ministers. Discussions are expected to center on further strengthening of relations and regional projects.

The summit will be covered by scores of foreign journalists, with about half of the nearly 300 journalists being from Russia and Western countries.

The Turkic countries’ summit began to take place in 1992, and nine such meetings have been held to date.

The foreign ministers’ meeting will be held at the time of the summit. The agenda of the ministerial will reportedly cover mutual support in international organizations.

The current state of talks to settle the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh will be discussed as well.