Islamabad to host OIC Council of Foreign Ministers next year

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will chair a meeting of foreign ministers, representing all members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in Islamabad next year, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“Positively responding to Pakistan’s offer, the 47th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of OIC in Niger has decided to host the 48th CFM Session in Islamabad in 2021,” it added.
It follows the OIC’s decision to include Pakistan in its six-member Executive Committee “for the next three years” during the CFM meeting in Niamey, Niger on Saturday.
Representatives of the OIC’s 57 members and five observer states participated in the two-day talks which focused on a wide range of topics and issues faced by the Muslim world.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi led the Pakistani delegation which highlighted the atrocities in Indian-administered Kashmir, resulting in the adoption of a new resolution by the OIC which reaffirmed its support for the disputed territory.
Pakistan is a founding member of the OIC and “has always played an important role in promoting the role of the OIC as a collective voice of Muslim Ummah,” the statement said.
The OIC was first established in 1969 and is the second-largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations.