GENEVA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed wish that Prime Minister Imran Khan should have attended the Kuala Lumpur Summit in Malaysia.
Imran Khan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met during at a meeting on the sidelines of the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva where he expressed that the prime minister should have attend the Kuala Lumpur summit.
The prime minister is currently in Geneva to attend the Global Refugee Forum where the Turkish president is also present.
Both the leaders also exchanged views on important regional and international issues, and expressed satisfaction over the commonality of views between the two countries on major issues.
Imran Khan also lauded Turkey’s actions on hosting the largest population of refugees, saying that Turkey played an active role in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The prime minister initially confirmed his participation in the summit but later he cancelled his visit after being approached by Saudi Arabia. Imran Khan himself traveled to Riyadh to personally meet the Saudi leader.
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However, the visits failed to bring the desired results forcing Pakistan to backout of the summit.
The Kuala Lumpur summit will kick off from tomorrow. It will be attended by leaders from Turkey, Iran and Qatar besides hundreds of other delegates.
The summit is meant to discuss problems facing the Muslim countries and suggest way forward. Observers see it as an attempt by Malaysia and other like-minded countries to create a new Islamic bloc, excluding Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.
Also read: PM discusses important regional issues with Erdogan
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