Babacan: "The D-8 secretariat will be permanently based in Istanbul"

Attending a foreign ministers meeting of the Developing Eight Countries (D-8) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over the weekend, a precursor to next week's D-8 summit, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told reporters afterwards, "Turkey spearheaded the establishment of the D-8, which includes very dynamic developing countries with large populations. We had a temporary D-8 secretariat in Istanbul, and now we've decided that Turkey will permanently host the secretariat." The D-8 summit will be attended by the heads of state or government from Turkey, Malaysia, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria. The D-8 is made up of eight developing countries that formed an economic development alliance in 1997.