Monday, 2 November 2009
About a week after Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan paid a visit to Iran amidst controversies about the new orientation in Turkish foreign policy the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad will be in Turkey for 25th session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of OIC (COMCEC) to be held in Istanbul on November 5-9.
The COMCEC, one of the 4 committees of the OIC, was established at the 3rd Islamic Summit Conference held in Mecca and Taif in Saudi Arabia in January 1981. COMCEC came into force starting with the Fourth Islamic Summit in 1984, where it was decided that the President of Turkish Republic of Turkey would assume its chairmanship. The committee watches the enforcement of resolutions in the economic and trade fields, searches ways of substantiating cooperation among the 57 Member States. The COMCEC has convened 24 annual sessions hitherto and all of them have been held in Istanbul. Besides other member states the 25th session will take place with the participation of the heads of state of the OIC Executive Committee member countries: Egypt, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uganda).
Turkey has been more actively involved in the Organization of Islamic Conference since the Justice and Development Party rose to power and managed to get Ekmeleddin ihsanoglu, the incumbent the first elected-by-vote secretary general of the OIC, elected in 2005.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan visited Iran last week and He expressed his support for Tehran's "right to peaceful nuclear energy" once more. While making it clear that Turkey is against any ‘nuclear’ state in the Middle East, Turkish Prime Minister said that the claim that Iran wants to produce nuclear weapons is a “gossip”. Turkey and Iran has had very good relations despite the claims that Iran wants to get nuclear weapons and in spite of the fact that Iran has been subjected to international sanctions because of its controversial nuclear program. Turkey and Iran have intensified their economic relations too and it is claimed that they are targeting 30 billion dollar trade volume between the countries to be achieved in the next few years.
It has been announced that the Iranian president will attend programs in the last two days of the meeting. It is reported that he will speak on developing relations among OIC member states and the global financial crisis. Ahmedinejad will also meet the Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
