President Buhari To Attend D-8 Summit In Turkey

President Muhammadu Buhari will Wednesday depart for Istanbul, Turkey to participate in the ninth Summit of the Developing 8 (D-8) on Friday, October 20, 2017.

Prior to the D-8 Summit, President Buhari, at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, would participate in an official working visit to Ankara, the capital city.

This was contained in a statement signed on Tuesday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina.

The statement read: “In Ankara, the President will have a tete-a-tete with his Turkish counterpart while delegations from both countries will hold discussions in various fields including defence cooperation, security, educational and migration issues. The Nigerian leader will also visit the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey in Ankara where he will meet with the Speaker, Ismail Kahraman.

“While in Istanbul, the Turkish commercial centre, President Buhari will use the occasion of the D-8 Summit to bolster warm and growing ties across a broad range of areas of cooperation with leaders of the D8-member countries, namely Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey.”

The D-8 Summit with the theme, “Expanding Opportunities through Cooperation”, will among other things, focus on cooperation in the areas of agriculture, trade, transport, energy and increased private sector participation among member-countries.

During the summit which will also mark the 20th anniversary of the organisation established to improve the developing countries’ positions in the world economy, President Buhari would highlight the significant show of confidence in Nigeria’s business environment and economy.

According to his spokesman, he would also affirm the nation’s resolve to work with D-8 member-countries on many key areas such as economy, trade, as well as peace and security.

At the end of the summit, the Heads of State and Government would adopt a communiqué, also known as the ‘Istanbul Declaration’.

President Buhari would be accompanied on the trip by some ministers and top government officials, including the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali.

Developing-8, also known as D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, is an organisation for development co-operation among eight countries.

The objectives of the organisation are to improve member states’ position in the global economy, as well as diversify and create new opportunities in trade relations among others.