President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan celebrated the 23rd anniversary of the establishment of the Developing-8 (D-8) Organization, the Term Presidency of which is currently undertaken by Turkey.
Recalling that Turkey has spearheaded the establishment of the D-8, President Erdoğan noted the following in his message:
"The D-8 aspires to ensure that peace prevails over war, dialogue over conflict, justice and development over double standard, equality over superiority, sharing over exploitation, and human rights, freedom and democracy over oppression. The D-8 is not a group of nations coalescing around interests, but the embodiment of the demand for a fair and peaceful world way beyond that.”
Erdoğan underlined that the incidents that have occurred in the past 23 years since its establishment, particularly the painful outlook witnessed during the Covid-19 process, have demonstrated how accurate the purposes of the D-8 are, and made the following remarks:
“This process has also demonstrated the need for principles that we have been advocating, as well as the substantial potential of the D-8 countries. We enjoy great cooperation opportunities in a wide spectrum especially ranging from defence industry to health, technology to tourism, good agricultural practices to clean energy, and transportation to environment and education. The proper implementation of the agreements concluded between our countries will help us to increase our trade volume, which currently totals 110 billion American dollars, to 500 billion American dollars.”
“With this understanding, we have been striving to turn the D-8 into a more effective, productive and project-oriented organization during our Term-Presidency,” said Erdoğan, adding that the efforts for the '2020-2030 Roadmap' and the 'Dhaka Declaration' that were set to channel the organization's next decade would be resolutely sustained in consideration of the 'Istanbul Declaration' and 'Istanbul Action Plan.'
“In this regard, I remember with grace the late Prime Minister Prof. Necmettin Erbakan, who has led the establishment of the D-8, and I would like to express my gratitude to all our friends, who have served for the D-8 and exerted great efforts in terms of developing and strengthening the organization in the past 23 years. I congratulate our Secretariat, which has been carrying out the activities of the D-8 devotedly, and may Allah reward their work with success,” said Erdoğan.