ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will chair the first ever meeting of D-8 Foreign Ministers in New York later this year on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
It was decided during the 35th session of the D-8 Commission which concluded in Islamabad on Wednesday after discussing progress made in the priority areas of cooperation and proposals to implement D-8 agreements on trade, visa and customs matters.
The commissioners and delegates from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey participated in the two-day meeting.
The meeting presided over by H.E. Mr. Babar Hashmi, the commissioner of Pakistan and the current Chair, discussed a host of issues on different and various agenda items including, among others, review of the current activities and engagements, intensification of economic cooperation through implementation of the provisions of various agreements and institutional mechanisms, updating the statutory documents for a more functioning Secretariat etc.
The participants focused on the need to facilitate cooperation on sectoral issues in order to take the Organization’s agenda for economic cooperation forward.
The meeting decided that report of the commission will be submitted to the 17th Session of the Council of Ministers which will be convened in Turkey in December this year.