Mirziyoyev at the Ankara summit proposes a “Turkic World-100” programme and ID-card travel

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev spoke at the 13th summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara on 30 October, under the motto “The Turkic Century: Unity in Language, Thought and Action”, and put forward a series of initiatives.

On the economy, he proposed a “Turkic World-100” programme of 100 strategic joint investment and industrial projects, including rare-mineral processing and localised production of green-energy equipment. He also suggested a multilateral treaty on mutual legal assistance in commercial matters with a digital platform for exchanging requests and documents, and a Network of Logistics Complexes of Turkic States to turn the Middle Corridor into a single economic system.

For people-to-people ties Mirziyoyev proposed a Turkic Tourism Alliance and a multilateral agreement that would also allow citizens to travel with national ID cards. He said more than 40 million foreign tourists visited the member countries in 2022 and that the region's tourism potential is still largely untapped.

In education and language, he proposed annual grants for representatives of Turkic states under the “New Uzbekistan” scholarship, declaring 2027 the “Year of Nature Protection” within the organization, and a “Dictionary of Common Turkic Words” made up of terms that Turkic peoples readily understand. On politics he called for regular consultations on international issues and an “OTS Plus” format for cooperation with third countries. The next summit will be held in Uzbekistan, and Mirziyoyev backed Uzbek diplomat Mirvokhid Azimov for Secretary General.