Antalya to welcome world leaders, diplomats at diplomacy forum
ANKARA
World leaders and dozens of foreign ministers as well as prominent diplomats, academics and journalists will come together to attend a two-day diplomacy forum in Antalya where all global issues will be discussed openly and innovatively, a senior Turkish diplomat has announced.
“What we mean by innovative diplomacy is that the forum will not just stick to the existing problems but also seek ways to resolve them. The participants will not only discuss the current issues but will debate about the future in an innovative and insightful way,” Murat Karagöz, the ambassador and coordinator of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, told reporters on June 8.
The forum will convene between June 18 and 20 under the title of “Innovative Diplomacy: New Era, New Approaches” through multiple panels and round tables devoted to regional issues and thematic subjects.
As for the regional issues, the developments in the Middle East and the Gulf, in the eastern Mediterranean, the Southern Caucasus, Africa, Asia and Europe as well as their future impacts on global affairs will be discussed at the panel. The ways to tackle extremism and discrimination, the global fight against terrorism and the topic of energy are some of the thematic issues that will be raised during the two-day forum.
Heads of nations and prime ministers from around a dozen of countries will attend the forum upon the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while dozens of foreign ministers will actively participate in the forum upon the invitation of Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
The forum will be launched by the opening speeches of Erdoğan and Çavuşoğlu on June 18 and will be followed by a leaders’ panel on global governance and regional solidarity.
Turkish Cyprus President Ersin Tatar; Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama; Josep Borrell, the EU high representative and EU Commission vice president; Margaritis Schinas, the EU commissioner for Promoting the European Way of Life; Mathias Cormann, the secretary-general for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and Antonio Vitorino, the director-general for the International Organization for Migration are among the high-ranking participants of the forum.
In addition, the foreign ministers of Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Palestine, Libya, Pakistan are among the top diplomats to be present at the forum. Retired historian Gerard Jirair Libaridian will also attend the diplomacy forum. Ambassador Karagöz also informed that the forum would follow a strict health guideline designed by the Health Ministry for the safety of the participants.
