Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu discussed preparations for the upcoming Organization of Turkic States (OTS) summit with his Turkmen counterpart Raşit Meredow on Tuesday.
The organization is to hold an extraordinary summit in Ankara on March 16.
The OTS is an interstate bloc, established with the aim of expanding cooperation between Turkish-speaking countries in the fields of politics, economics, science, education, transport, and tourism.
The members of the organization are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan. Hungary and Turkmenistan have observer status in the organization. Late in 2022, the organization welcomed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) as its third observer member in a move hailed as a "step in bringing Turkic states even closer".
The group could expand further if isolated Turkmenistan becomes a fully-fledged member, an expansion announced by Türkiye's Foreign Ministry but not confirmed by Ashgabat. If Turkmenistan joins, the union set up in 2009 will incorporate all the Central Asian countries that speak Turkic languages.
In 2021, the organization dropped its former name, the Turkic Council, in favor of the Organization of Turkic States.
Çavuşoğlu also had a phone call with Qatar's new Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday and congratulated him on his appointment. Earlier, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani appointed Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed as the country's new prime minister.
