Dushanbe, 17.10.2016. /NIAT “Khovar”/. The 43rd session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will be held in Tashkent on October 18-19, with Uzbekistan presiding over the meeting, Uzbek Deputy Foreign Minister Gayrat Fazilov said.

«The foreign ministers of 26 member countries have officially confirmed their attendance,» he said at a press briefing in Tashkent on Friday.

The session will be attended by OIC Secretary General Iyad Amin Madani, President of the Islamic Development Bank Group Bandar Hajjar, countries’ special envoys to the OIC and representatives of a number of international organizations, he said.

The adopted slogan ‘Education and awareness raising is a path towards peace and creation’, Fazilov said.

The participants in the session will discuss ways to maintain dialogue between states, solutions to the OIC’s issues of how to promote peace, joint efforts to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism, as well as steps to deepen interaction in politics, the economy, science, education and culture, he said.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation was established in September 1969 and today includes 57 countries. The OIC is the largest and most influential official governmental Muslim international organization. The Council of Foreign Ministers, which meets once a year, is one of the organization’s ruling bodies.

Recall that Tajikistan joined the OIC in December 1, 1992.