The OIC foreign ministers conference: A routine affair
This is a great turn around because the OIC since its birth in Rabat, capital of Morocco, had pretty frosty relations with the former Soviet Union, which since its break up has become once again the Russian Federation. That Russia should be part of the OIC, is evident from the fact that almost all the members of the former Soviet Union are Turkic Republics, and have close ethnic and religious ties with Turkey, an important member of the OIC. It may be noted in passing that whereas Russia has joined the OIC as observer; India, which with nearly 150 million Muslims is one of the largest Muslim populated states, has been unable to join the OIC even as observer. The reason simply is the tenacious objection of Pakistan, another important OIC member.
The 56 odd Foreign Ministers prepare, once in nearly four years, an OIC Summit. This winter the Summit is due to be held in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Dakar has been a favourite destination of the OIC and given one of its illustrious leaders Amadou Karim Gaye as a Secretary General.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The OIC agenda is long in subjects but short is substance. The question of Palestine and the Middle East figure regularly. In the eighties when I was the Assistant Secretary General in charge of Political, Palestine and Jerusalem issues, it used to be the most important question. Although the Organisation is titled the Organisation of Islamic Conference it is the Arab issues, which used to dominate and passing reference usually made to the question of Southern Phillipines, for example. Lot of hot air used to be the order of the day but there was precious little achieved. The situation does not appear to have changed much. If anything in the light of the events following 9/11, the world appears to be in turmoil and the Islamic world is bearing the brunt.
Much is made of Reforms of the Organisation. I have read that a panel of high profile personalities has been set up including Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia and Suleyman Demirel of Turkey. From my personal experience I can state that the OIC has been unable to set a credible goal for the member states. The main problem is that the OIC is composed of Asian, African and Arab groups and now enriched by the states of the former Soviet Union. Because of this fact the OIC has turned from a trilingual (Arabic, English and French), in to a quadrilingual group with the addition of Russia. The three groups, according to my experience, hardly ever pull together and are dominated by the Arab presence, because of its economic clout.
It would be unwise to expect important results from the Baku Foreign Ministers Conference. Since they are meeting to, in a sense, prepare the Summit this winter, the meeting is unlikely to take any important decision. As usual there will be speeches galore on every topic under the sun and really minimum achievement to its credit. The OIC annual conferences have become routine affairs but alas! have great difficulty in finding space in the world media.