Antalya Diplomacy Forum kicked off on Friday gathering politicians, diplomats, experts and academics from all around the world. The three-day event called "Innovative Diplomacy: New Era, New Approaches" is being held at the NEST Congress and Exhibition Center in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya.
According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Forum is hosting ten heads of state and government, 42 foreign ministers, three former heads of state and government, and more than 50 representatives of international organizations or former government officials.
Ukraine is represented by Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar, leader of the Crimean Tatars and member of Ukrainian parliament Mustafa Dzhemilev, Chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis (QTMM) Refat Chubarov, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis and Ukrainian MP Akhtem Chiygoz, Delegate of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar people and Member of Ukrainian Parliament Rustem Umerov.
Emine Dzheppar- Refat Chubarov
The Forum started with the opening speech of United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Çavuşoglu: ADF is the first of its kind
Noting that the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF) is the first of its kind as it specifically focuses on diplomacy, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said: “We want every issue to be discussed innovatively and creatively. We want a liberal discussion platform which can reflect different perspectives.”
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu delivers opening speech during Antalya Diplomacy Forum on June 18, 2021.
“With the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, we aim to strengthen our influence that is on the field and at the table in diplomacy and also in the field of thought,” Çavuşoğlu said, speaking at the opening of the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP) Summit.
“We believe that the forum will gain an important prestige and visibility in the international arena in a short time,” the minister said. He recalled that Antalya hosted many international events, including the G20 Summit and NATO Foreign Ministers meeting.
“We are living through one of the most fluid and uncertain periods of relations between states and nations. There are constant changes in the balance of power,” Çavuşoğlu added. “States are in competition, even in struggle, in addition to cooperation. We hear the screams of an international system that is fighting to survive amid strong turbulence."
Adding that Turkey boasts the fifth-largest diplomatic network with 252 representatives worldwide, Çavuşoğlu said: “We implement an entrepreneurial diplomacy that tries to solve problems in every corner of the world, at the level of both leaders and embassies."
Erdoğan called world leaders to stop vaccine nationalism
The world at large “failed to give a good test” on the pandemic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his opening speech. The UN Security Council took 100 days after the outbreak erupted to put "the biggest health crisis in history" onto its agenda, he lamented.
Urging world leaders not to permit vaccine nationalism to take hold and not to repeat the same mistakes as the pandemic progresses, Erdogan underlined that the virus outbreak had "sharpened injustices" in the world.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during Antalya Diplomacy Forum on June 18, 2021.
Erdogan also underlined that in the coming days, Turkey looks forward to boosting cooperation in all regions from Africa to Latin America and from the Pacific to Asia. "I believe the Antalya Diplomacy Forum will turn into a ground where the heart of global diplomacy beats in time," he said.
The Turkish president said that the sphere of diplomacy has expanded with rising globalization and recent developments in the fields of communication technology, the internet, and social media.
“Today, when we say diplomacy, we’re not just talking about meetings held behind closed doors between state and government officials, rather this concept also refers to work carried out in a wide range from public diplomacy to cultural diplomacy, from tourism diplomacy to trade and digital diplomacy,” Erdogan said.
Ukraine suffered a lot from unsolved issues
Expressing that Syria, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine suffered a lot from the unresolved issues, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that the Antalya Diplomacy Forum is important for the steps to be taken in these areas.
