CAIRO
Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Wednesday said that the OIC had come a long way and the point they reached today was crucial.
Ihsanoglu talked on the OIC's historical development process at a forum organized by the Diplomacy Academy in Cairo.
OIC is considered to be more global and as a strategic partner by the United Nations (UN), Ihsanoglu noted.
"OIC has achieved many successes. We reaped the fruits of organizing our member states during a vote at the UN on Palestine. Our aim in the future is to facilitate more political diplomacy and, most importantly, more economic cooperation between our members," Ihsanoglu underlined.
Reminding that the issues of countries like Russia, US and France, who have Muslim minorities, came up for membership in the OIC and their full membership to the OIC were not accepted in order to preserve the structural and special character of the organization, Ihsanoglu noted that Russia was given the status of "observer" in the OIC.
Following his speech, Ihsanoglu answered the questions of diplomats and candidates studying at the Diplomacy Academy.
