MOSCOW

Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to Türkiye on Friday was appointed the new secretary general of the Organization of Turkic States.

The decision was made at a summit of the group’s leaders in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, according to a statement on its website.

Kubanychbek Omuraliev has served as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Türkiye, and Israel, as well as Kyrgyzstan’s permanent representative to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

"Bringing over 25 years of diplomatic experience, the new Secretary General has pledged to continue driving our Organization to be innovative and increasingly pertinent for Member and Observer States, better positioning all of us to embrace our fraternal bonds and make progress on achieving common goals set forth by the Turkic Vision 2040," the statement said.

There will be a handover ceremony on Monday where Omuraliev will take over the post from his predecessor Baghdad Amreyev at the group’s headquarters in Istanbul.

The Organization of Turkic States is an interstate bloc, established with the aim of expanding cooperation between Turkic-speaking countries in the fields of politics, economics, science, education, transport, and tourism.

Its members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan.

Hungary, Turkmenistan and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also have observer status.