Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu attended MIKTA Foreign Ministerial Meeting in 22 May 2015.

In the first part of the meeting titled “Global and Regional Issues” views were exchanged on contemporary international developments. Within this framework, UN peacekeeping operations, UN Security Council reform, refugees on the Andaman Sea, Syria, terrorism, development cooperation, climate change, cyber security and the situation in the Korean peninsula were reviewed.

Speaking of the refugees on the Andaman Sea, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu stated that what is happening in this area is a humanitarian tragedy, that thousands of Rohingya Muslims are still adrift at the open sea, that human traffickers do not hesitate to murder people by sinking the ships and that there is a need to combat them collectively. Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu said that in order to eliminate the problem, Rohingya’s situation in Myanmar should be improved, and to this end Turkey will contribute 1 million USD Dollars to International Maritime Organization and the UNHCR and she will support the steps taken by the countries of the region in order to solve the issue.

At his speech in the session on Syria which was led by Turkey, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu emphasized that 300 thousand people lost their lives in the last 5 years, that a political solution must be found to the problem, that Geneva Declaration is a useful road map for the resolution of the problem and the Syrian regime must be pressured regarding its implementation and that the current unresolved state of the problem is the reason of the radicalization. Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu also expressed that eradicating DEASH through air attacks is not possible, that a comprehensive strategy is required to combat foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), that FTFs are a serious threat to Turkey as well, that our country is doing its utmost to prevent their entry to Syria but there has to be more cooperation and intelligence sharing on this issue.

Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu stated that Turkey opened its doors to the refugees fleeing from Syria but this brings a significant financial burden and this burden should be shared by the international community.

At the meeting, the official website of the MIKTA was inaugurated and it was decided that Australia will be the coordinator country of MIKTA starting from September.