ASTANA -- Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev hosted the 10th summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Astana on November 3, hailing the strengthened unity of the "brotherly nations" as he welcomed the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
The Kazakh presidential press service said Toqaev discussed cooperation and integration of the group's members with Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and Shavkat Mirziyoev of Uzbekistan.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the former president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, also attended the summit, which ended with the signing of several documents, including a joint declaration on cooperation between the group's members and a road map on implementation of the transportation communication for 2023-27.
Greeting his counterparts, Toqaev congratulated Erdogan on the centennial anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey marked on October 29.
Toqaev also congratulated Aliyev for what he called "strengthening Azerbaijan's statehood...in accordance with the UN Charter and the UN Security Council's resolution," an apparent reference to Baku taking full control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in September.
"We have followed the will of our ancestors and strengthened the unity of the brotherly nations. Our goal now is to preserve our unity based on mutual trust and brotherhood and passed it over to the generations to come.... The widening of the cooperation between the Turkic nations is now our common goal," Toqaev said.
Toqaev held separate talks with Erdogan and Berdymukhammedov on November 3. A day earlier, he and Orban discussed bilateral ties.
The Organization of Turkic States, formerly known as the Turkic Council, was established in October 2009 with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey as founding members. Uzbekistan joined in September 2019.
Hungary and Turkmenistan joined as observers in 2018 and 2021, respectively.
In 2020, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar said her country wanted to be an observer as well.
