Gul set to attend D-8 summit in Nigeria

President Abdullah Gul is set to attend a summit of the Developing Eight (D-8) nations in Abuja, Nigeria tomorrow. On the sidelines of the summit, which brings together heads of state and high-level government officials from eight developing Muslim nations, Gul is expected to hold bilateral talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad focusing on the Iranian nuclear issue. After brokering a nuclear swap deal with Iran in May, Brazil and Turkey recently voted against new sanctions on Iran at the UN Security Council. Recent developments in the Middle East in the wake of a May 31 deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, which strained Turkish-Israeli ties to near breaking, is also expected to be a focus of the summit. Turkey warned Israel on Monday that it will cut ties unless it receives an apology for the raid, which left nine Turks dead, but Israel has said it would never say sorry for defending itself. The Istanbul-based D-8 includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, and has a total population of 930 million people. D-8 leaders are also set to discuss the global economic recession, climate change, and ways to boost trade among themselves by 10-15 percent. The Istanbul-headquartered D-8 was established in 1997 to promote economic ties and solidarity within the member states.