The Organization of Turkic States (OTS) will hold its 13th summit in Ankara on Thursday and Friday, hosted by Türkiye, which will take over the organisation's rotating chairmanship from Azerbaijan. Leaders of the Turkic world are set to discuss cooperation in fields ranging from agriculture and space to trade and transport.
According to the programme, the Council of Foreign Ministers will meet on Thursday. The leaders' summit, hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will take place on Friday under the theme "Turkic Century: Unity in Language, Thought and Action". The meetings are expected to review the current state and future prospects of cooperation within the organisation, as well as regional and international developments of common interest.
Leaders are expected to assess progress in the OTS's priority areas, including political cooperation, trade and investment, transport and connectivity, energy, digital transformation, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, and institutional development. Strengthening unity and solidarity among Turkic states and advancing concrete cooperation in line with the Turkic World 2040 Vision will be given particular emphasis. Heads of state are expected to adopt the Ankara Declaration alongside a number of decisions and documents aimed at deepening cooperation and reinforcing the organisation's institutional structure.
Turkish business circles will also gather at various events on the sidelines of the summit, where the Middle Corridor, border crossings, customs procedures and logistics costs are expected to dominate discussions. Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov is scheduled to meet Turkish business representatives on Friday. The Middle Corridor is seen as offering significant opportunities for the economic integration of the Turkic world, while the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway stands out as a key element of transport cooperation between Türkiye and Azerbaijan.
A digital economy partnership agreement among member states aims to remove barriers to e-commerce, digital services and cross-border data-based economic activity. In June, Türkiye ratified the agreement, becoming the third country after Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan to complete domestic approval. Digital cooperation also extends to agriculture through the planned "OTS Digital Agriculture Data Platform" for data exchange and smart solutions. In space, a framework agreement continuing cooperation on a joint CubeSat project coordinated by the organisation was signed at the 77th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2026).
On trade, Türkiye has in recent years been a net exporter to the OTS full members Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Its exports to these countries rose from $6.2 billion in 2021, when imports stood at $4.2 billion, to $10 billion in 2024. In 2025, exports totalled $9.6 billion and imports $7.3 billion, bringing annual trade volume close to $17 billion. Kazakhstan led last year's export figures with $3.2 billion, followed by Azerbaijan with $3 billion, Uzbekistan with $2.1 billion and Kyrgyzstan with $1.3 billion. In the first eight months of this year, exports reached $6.1 billion and imports $5.4 billion.
Besides its full members, the OTS includes Turkmenistan, Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) as observer states, while the Economic Cooperation Organization holds observer organisation status.
