No: 187, 6 June 2014

The Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and 14 Small Island Developing States in the Pacific (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia, Marshal Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) will be hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Mr. Ahmet Davutoğluin Istanbul between 7 and 8 June 2014. Timor Leste, located in the vicinity of the region will also participate in the Meeting.

Considering that the United Nations declared 2014 as “the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS)”, the theme of the meeting has been chosen to be “From Bosphorus to the Pacific: Continued Cooperation for Sustainable Development” to draw attention to the environmental, economic and social challenges faced by these countries, the limited resources they possess to meet them, and to discuss face to face what can be done on these issues in solidarity with the Pacific countries.

The meeting, which is the follow-up of the Turkey-Pacific Islands Ministers of Foreign Affairs Meeting hosted by Turkey on 9-11 April 2008, also aims at taking stock of the developments in the relations between Turkey and Small Island States in the Pacific until now. In the same vein, the Meeting will be a valuable opportunity to carry our bilateral and multilateral cooperation further in issues such as economic relations, development assistance and climate change.