ISLAMABAD: The State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, will represent Pakistan at the 20th D-8 Council of Foreign Ministers meeting hosted by Bangladesh in hybrid format on Wednesday (today).

A statement issued by Foreign Office said that the D-8 Group was established in Istanbul on 15th June 1997. In addition to Pakistan, its founding members included Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Türkiye. Housed in Istanbul, the Organization is currently led by Ambassador Isiaka Abdulqadir Imam of Nigeria, who assumed the position of Secretary-General on 1st January 2022.

With a combined population of more than 1.1 billion people from eight developing economies of the Muslim world, D-8 is a unique cross-regional inter-governmental organization, stretching from Southeast Asia to Africa. D-8 Member States represent 60 percent of the world Muslim population and have an annual GDP of nearly US 4.92 trillion dollars.

The D-8 presents a robust platform to promote economic growth, trade and development, and enhanced connectivity amongst some of the world’s largest Muslim countries as well as to forge common approaches to international economic issues and architecture.

The organization also aims to enhance social, cultural and scientific cooperation besides promoting trade, connectivity and ease of business amongst its members. With the intra-D-8 trade target of US 500 billion dollars conceived under the Decennial Road Map 2020-30, the Minister of State would be encouraging D-8 countries to swiftly implement the existing Preferential Trade Agreement and further expand the remit of their multi-sectoral cooperation.

Besides, prospects and implementation of the D-8 Payment Card System, D-8 Barter Trade System and promotion of D-8 Creative Economy such a Halal food will also come under discussion. Considering the organization’s strong potential, Azerbaijan has also applied for D-8 membership, which Pakistan welcomes.

Pakistan hosted the 8th D-8 Summit in November 2012. Pakistan has also hosted two Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meetings, several D-8 Commissions meeting, and various sectoral interactions. Pakistan’s University of Agriculture, Faisalabad has been declared as the D-8 Research Center for Agriculture. Pakistan plans to host the 4th Senior Officials and 3rd D-8 Ministerial meeting on Tourism this year. We have also designated Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, as D-8 Airport.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022