Brunei Participates In Two-Day OIC Summit In Malaysia

Putrajaya – Heads of state and government of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) will hold their two-day summit in Putrajaya, Malaysia today.

The Putrajaya Declaration will be issued at the end of the summit, which will focus on action-oriented strategies.

Sources said the Putrajaya Declatration would put in focus issues like enhancing intra-OIC trade and investment, developing science and technology, spreading education and OIC structural reforms.

A statement will also be issued on the need to make the OIC a credible and cohesive organisation so that it could function as a body that represented all its members.

It was felt that as the representative of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the organisation has not received the importance that it deserved in international affairs.

The summit will issue statements on Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Facing Israeli violence, the Palestinians have found strong support from the OIC for their struggle.

The summit is expected to condemn the vicious attacks and the killings of Palestinian civilians during Israeli incursions into Palestine.

The member states have also expressed solidarity with Syria, which has been threatened with military attacks by Israel.

However, differences remain on how to deal with the Iraq issue.

Turkey has asked the OIC to mobilise peacekeeping force to stabilize the post war Iraq.

The OIC wants the United States-led occupation forces to leave Iraq and give the United Nations to central role to rebuild Iraq.

There would also be a joint communiqué, which would contain all matters that had been discussed, debated and decided at the summit.

The OIC was established in Rabat, Morocco in September 1969 in answer to a call for Islamic solidarity made by the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

Today, the OIC unites 57 states, from Africa to Asia and the Pacific, within one framework of a single international organisation.

Not all the states are Islamic nations, some have very little Muslim population, but all have agreed to come together to pool their resource together, to combine their efforts, to share experience and expertise and to speak with one voice.

The summit is held once in every three years. -- Courtesy of Radio Television Brunei 

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