Islamabad, 26 July 2022 (TDI): Hina Rabbani Khar, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, will be representing Pakistan at the 20th Developing-Eight (D-8) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM).
The meeting is hosted by Bangladesh in a hybrid format on 27 July. Pakistan also hosted the 8th Developing-Eight Summit in 2012.
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D-8 Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting
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— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) July 26, 2022
The Minister of State of Pakistan will also be urging the Developing-Eight countries to promptly adopt the prevalent Preferential Trade Agreement along with further expanding the remit of multi-sectoral partnership.
This would be in the context of the intra-D-8 trade target of US $500 billion envisioned as per the Decennial Road Map 2020-30.
Similarly, implementation and prospects of the Developing-Eight Barter Trade System, Developing-Eight Payment Card System, and promotion of the Developing-Eight Creative Economy such as halal food are also on the agenda of the meeting.
It is pertinent to note that Pakistan also hosted two Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meetings, many Developing-Eight Commissions meetings, along with various sectoral dealings.
Along these lines, the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan has been declared the Research Center for Agriculture of the Developing-Eight organization.
Furthermore, Pakistan has planned to host the 4th Senior Officials as well as the 3rd D-8 Ministerial Summit on Tourism, this year. For this purpose, Pakistan has also assigned Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, as D-8 Airport.
D-8 Group: An Overview
The D-8 Group was founded on 15 June 1997, in Istanbul. Aside from Pakistan, its founding members are Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Türkiye.
The Organization is based in Istanbul and is currently headed by Ambassador Isiaka Abdulqadir Imam. Ambassador Imam belongs to Nigeria.
He assumed the role of Secretary-General on 1 January, this year. D-8 is a distinctive cross-regional inter-governmental Organization.
It has a collective population of approximately 1.1 billion people from eight budding economies of the Muslim world. It stretches from Southeast Asia to Africa.
60 percent of the world’s Muslim population is represented by the D-8 Member States which have a yearly GDP of almost US $4.92 trillion.
The D-8 is a potent forum to promote trade and development, economic growth, as well as improved connectivity among some of the largest Muslim countries in the world.
Moreover, the platform endeavors to forge joint approaches to global economic problems and architecture.
Additionally, the organization aims to boost cultural, social, and scientific collaboration as well as connectivity, promoting trade, and ease of business amongst members.
Moreover, considering the strong potential of the organization, Azerbaijan has also applied for D-8 membership. Pakistan welcomes Azerbaijan’s application for the organization.
