Meeting of the Ministers of Health of the Organization of Turkic States held in Istanbul

The 2nd Meeting of the Ministers of Health was held on the margins of the Turkic Medical World Congress on 31 October 2022 Istanbul.

The meeting was hosted by H.E. Dr. Fahrettin Koca, Minister of Health of the Republic of Türkiye and attended by H.E. Baghdad Amreyev, Secretary General of the OTS, H.E. Dr. Teymur Musayev, Minister of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Dr. Azhar Giniyat, Minister of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, H.E. Dr. Gulnara Baatırova, Minister of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic and H.E. Behzad Musayev, Minister of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Addressing the meeting Minister Fahrettin Koca noted the importance of solidarity among the Turkic States as it shown during the coronavirus pandemic, maintain the achieved results, and deepen cooperation within the framework of the OTS to become a large family that can act jointly in the scientific field and produces its own vaccine, medicine, and medical device. To achieve these goals the Minister expressed the readiness of the Türkiye to support and contribute to the strengthening of the health systems of the brotherly countries.

In his speech, Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev stated that the OTS has made a significant contribution to health cooperation during the pandemic and important efforts in order to maximize collaboration in the field of health within the Turkic World.

Secretary General Amreyev underlined that the OTS is the first international organization that held a meeting in the world in the fight against Covid-19, right after the outbreak of the pandemic.

the Strategy 2022-2026 the OTS Member States

The Secretary General emphasized that Heads of State instructed us to maintain health cooperation as a priority agenda item among the Member States in both “Turkic World Vision – 2040” and “OTS Strategy 2022-2026” documents.

He underlined that with the Strategy 2022-2026 the OTS Member States committed to:

–    Expand the scope of cooperation issues;
–    Share best practices in epidemiology, microbiology, virology, and similar areas through capacity-building programs for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment methods;
–    Organize technical visits to identify shortcomings and needs of the healthcare services of Turkic States for delivering responses and solutions;
–    Improve laboratory capacities to diagnose communicable diseases and develop innovative systems for early and rapid detection and investigation of outbreaks;
–    Hold the annual Turkic Medical World Congress with the participation of Health Ministers and scientists of Turkic States;
–    Increase the number of scholarships for medical students;
–    Utilize the full potential of the Supply Chain Group and etc.

The Secretary-General and the Ministers signed the “Joint Declaration of the 8th Turkic Medical World Congress of Turkic States and the Award Ceremony of “Tribute to the History of Medicine and Common Legacy” reflecting the results of the Ministerial meeting as well as the meeting of the scientists of the Member and Observer States of the OTS.

Among others, the Parties also agreed to strengthen collaboration on exploring possibilities of supplying medicines, medical equipment, and material needs of the Member States and assessment of the joint production and procurement possibilities in the fields of personal protective equipment, vaccines, medicines, medical devices and materials, and removing barriers against free movement of these supplies.

Secretary General Amreyev also held bilateral meetings with the Ministers of Health of the Member States and discussed the future cooperation opportunities and needed action to use the full potential among the Member and Observer States.

The Parties agreed to hold the next meeting of the Ministers of Health and Turkic Medical World Congress in Samarkand in 2023.