World leaders, foreign ministers, and diplomats from at least 50-odd countries gathered at Turkey’s Antalya to attend Antalya Diplomatic Forum (ADF) meet. The ADF meet is being held from 11-13 March. The theme of the forum meet is “Recoding Diplomacy.”
Inaugurating the forum Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu urged attendees to use diplomatic means to resolve all issues for the sake of humankind.
Emphasizing the importance of ADF, the minister said “When looking at participants from all over the world, the Antalya Diplomacy Forum has turned into United Nations….More than one-third of countries, around 40 percent of the states are present at the highest level here today.”
A lot of attention is on this forum as the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has confirmed that join the negotiation discussion in Antalya, with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. The leaders from Ukraine and Russia are expected to meet on the sidelines of the forum.
The Turkish Foreign Minister has expressed hope that the talks which started before the forum were inaugurated will have a positive outcome on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The minister also added that Turkey will remain committed to bringing lasting peace in the European region.
The forum is also getting a lot of media traction as the Armenian Foreign minister has confirmed his participation. Turkey and Armenia have several differences over various issues. It is only in recent months that the sides have made diplomatic efforts to normalize ties.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is also attending the meeting.
The ADF is hosting about 2,000 participants and more than 10,000 people are expected to attend the event online.
There are different events associated with this forum, the most popular among them are panel discussions on democratic governance, energy security, counter-terrorism, and fighting racism and discrimination. There will be discussions on regional and international issues.
