Ms. Cihan Sultanoğlu, the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (RBEC) of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) visited Ambassador Ramil Hasanov, Secretary General of the Turkic Council at the Secretariat premises in Istanbul, on 17 May 2017.

At the visit, Secretary General Hasanov expressed his gratitude to welcome Ms. Sultanoğlu at the Secretariat for the first time in the anniversary of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Turkic Council and the UNDP last year. He also conveyed his gratitude to her for the partnership of the UNDP to the international conference of the Turkic Council on the role of youth in preventing and countering violent extremism that was co-hosted by the Turkic Council with the UN Alliance of Civilizations in October 2016 in Istanbul.

During the meeting, Ms. Sultanoğlu reiterated the readiness of the UNDP to continue its partnership with the Turkic Council on the concrete regional projects in the field of countering violent extremism, development of rural tourism and empowerment of the e-governance in all Turkic Speaking States and regional partner countries in the period ahead.

At the end of the meeting, both sides agreed to continue their high-level contacts during the Expo 2017 in Astana and on the margins of the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York to projectize the priorities areas of cooperation within the agenda of both organizations.

Pelin Musabay Baki, Project Director and Emre Yurdakul Chief of Protocol of the Turkic Council, as well as Ivan Zverzhanovski, PhD, Team Leader for New Partnerships and Emerging Donors of the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub participated in the meeting.