Secretary General Ambassador Ramil Hasanov delivered the openning address at the conference entitled `the Countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia in the Context of the Silk Road Economic Belt`

The delegation of Turkic Council headed by Secretary General Ambassador Ramil Hasanov participate in the conference entitled "Countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asiain the Context of the Silk Road Economic Belt" hosted by Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SAM Azerbaijan) on 7 May 2015 in Baku.

Director of Azerbaijan SAM, Dr. Farhad Mammadov made his introductry remarks and for openning address he gave the floor first to Arastu Habibbeyli, Arastu Habibbayli, Deputy Head of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for his opening statement. Following him, In his opening address to the audience, after thanking the organizers of the meeting , Secretary General Hasanov mentionned the projects of Turkic Council with regard to the cooperation in transportation, customs service and tourism that the Council materializes for the benefit of the region. By underlying that “Action speaks lauder than words!”, he stated that the implementation of cooperative and comprehensive approach in a harmonized way among all stakeholders in the region along the Silk Road Economic Belt will provide us with collective gains rather than collective pains. Furthermore, he mentioned that the MOU among the Official Foreign Policy Research Centers of the Member States to be signed by the Heads of the mentioned institutions in the meeting to be hosted by SAM Azerbaijan will be instrumental in furthering cooperation to reattribute the Silk Road its attractive. Thus the Heads, in their individual addresses to the also conference that were also present at the meeting also noted the important role that the Turkic Council plays for the revival of the Silk Road in terms of economic, cultural and human relations.

With the speech of Li Yongquan, Director of Institute of Russian, Eastern European & Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the opening session was concluded.

The session was followed by two panels on "Strengthening the Regional Political Cooperation to Address the Challenges Facing the Realization of the Silk Road Economic Belt" and "Infrastructure Projects: Realization of Silk Road Economic Belt, Increasing Trade and Exchange of Investments".

Project Directors Zamin Aliyev, Pelin Musabay Baki and Yedil Myrzakhanov and Chief of Protocol Emre Yurdakul accompanied the Secretary General Ramil Hasanov at the conference.