Buhari leaves for Summit in Turkey, Wednesday

Buhari leaves for Summit in Turkey, Wednesday

NIGERIA's President Muhammadu Buhari leaves for Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday,  to participate in the Ninth Summit of the Developing 8 (D-8) scheduled for Friday.

This was contained in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Tuesday. He noted that the President would be accompanied on the trip by ministers, top government officials, including the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali.

The Summit, which has its theme as: "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.

President Buhari will also use his attendance at 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 Summit will also mark the 20th anniversary of the organisation established to improve the developing countries’ positions in the world economy.

Among others, Buhari will highlight the significant show of confidence in Nigeria’s business environment and economy, her resolve to work with D-8 member-countries on many key areas, including peace and security, economy and trade.

At the end of the summit, Heads of States and Governments would adopt a communique, also known as the ‘Istanbul Declaration’.

The statement noted that prior to the D-8 Summit, at the invitation of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, PMB would participate in an official working visit to Ankara, the capital city where he will have a tete-a-tete with his Turkish counterpart as delegations from both countries will hold discussions in various fields including defence cooperation, security, educational and migration issues.”

Nigeria's President, according to Adesina, would also visit the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey in Ankara where he will meet with the Speaker, Ismail Kahraman.