At a high-level meeting on humanitarian aid which was held during the 68th UN General Assembly meeting, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that the World Humanitarian Summit which is envisaged to be held for the first time in 2016 will take place in Istanbul. UN Secretary-General Ban highlighted that Turkey’s important contribution at national, regional and global levels, especially to the humanitarian issues as well as historical characteristic and logistic capabilities of İstanbul played a role in the decision.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu stated that he is proud to be the Foreign Minister of the country which would host the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit and thanked Secretary-General Ban for choosing Turkey to host the Summit and Valeria Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator for her support.

Pointing out that Turkey is a rising donor country in recent years Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said that Turkey will mobilize all its capabilities for the success of the Summit. Highlighting Turkey’s dedication to help humanity and its work in several countries which experienced natural disasters, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu stated that international diplomacy and organizations aim to serve humanity.

After the high-level meeting, speaking to the press members together with Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu mentioned that a variety of factors played role in the decision of UN Secretary-General Ban, but Turkey’s extraordinary breakthrough in the fields of humanitarian aid and humanitarian diplomacy in particular, was the most important one.

Voicing that Turkey now ranks 4th on the list of world’s largest humanitarian donors, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu reminded that the G20 Summit and the Least Developed Countries Mid-Term Evaluation Summit will be held in Turkey in 2015. Foreign Minister Davutoğlu also stated that Istanbul is aimed to be a center that brings together UN offices on the international community’s issues of mediation, peace activities, humanitarian and women as well as development matters.