A regional platform initiated by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to hold its second technical-level meeting today in Istanbul.
Turkey proposed the platform for conflict resolution in the volatile Caucasus following a brief war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia in August. The platform consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey. Deputy foreign ministers of the five parties of the Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform had met on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held in Helsinki in December, the first time representatives from the group sat around the same table.
At today's meeting in Istanbul, the parties are expected to be represented by deputy undersecretaries of the foreign ministries of these countries. The meeting aims at outlining details for bringing in an institutional structure to the platform. The Iraq neighbors' group, set up to help stabilize the country after the US-led invasion in 2003, will be taken as a model for structuring of the new platform. The neighboring countries project, an initiative which brings together Iraq and its neighbors for ministerial consultations, was actually initiated by Turkey in January 2003, in a bid to focus efforts on preventing a war in neighboring Iraq.
The initiative, launched during the 58th government of Turkey, led by then-foreign minister, now-President Abdullah Gul, came prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq. In the meantime, the process has evolved into the Expanded Neighboring Countries of Iraq Foreign Ministers Meeting. The group now consists of the neighbors of Iraq and permanent members of the UN Security Council and G-8 countries, as well as the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League and the European Commission.
The Iraq neighbors' group doesn't have a secretariat and participant countries do not hold rotating term presidencies. The neighbors' group holds a summit every six months, each time being hosted by a different member country. The next goal, after finalizing exercises on principles, decision-making mechanisms and structuring, is holding a summit which will gather leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey at a summit of the Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform.
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