Ankara to host Turkic states summit as Türkiye takes chair

The organisation, in which the TRNC holds observer status, will hold meetings on Thursday and Friday covering trade, transport, energy, digital technology, agriculture and space cooperation.

Foreign ministers will meet on Thursday, ahead of Friday’s leaders’ summit hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Held under the theme “Turkic Century: Unity in Language, Thought and Action”, the summit will review existing partnerships and plans for closer cooperation, alongside regional and international developments.

Leaders are expected to adopt the Ankara Declaration and approve decisions aimed at strengthening the organisation’s institutions and advancing its Turkic World Vision 2040.

The OTS’s full members are Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The TRNC, Hungary and Turkmenistan participate as observers.

Transport and trade links will feature prominently, with business representatives expected to discuss the Middle Corridor route, border procedures, customs arrangements and ways to reduce logistics costs.

The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway is among the key links supporting closer economic ties between Türkiye and Azerbaijan.

Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov is also scheduled to meet Turkish business representatives on Friday.

Digital initiatives include an agreement intended to ease cross-border e-commerce and digital services, as well as plans for a shared agricultural data platform. Cooperation on a joint CubeSat satellite project will also be on the agenda.

Türkiye’s trade with the organisation’s four other full members reached approximately $16.9 billion in 2025, comprising $9.6 billion in exports and $7.3 billion in imports.

Trade totalled around $11.5 billion during the first eight months of 2026, with Kazakhstan remaining Türkiye’s largest export market among the four countries.