00:00With Turkiye, the Diplomacy Forum in the city of Antalya is on its second day, Saturday.
00:05The meeting has gathered more than 25 head of states and over 65 representatives from more than 155 countries
00:12and will be in session until Sunday.
00:14Our correspondent, Juno Soner, tells us more with this report.
00:19Good afternoon from the city of Antalya here in Turkiye,
00:23where the International Diplomacy Forum is continuing on its second day
00:29with representation of more than 155 countries here at the forum, 25 heads of state,
00:36and more than 60 ministers are present in this forum that is celebrating its fifth anniversary.
00:44This second day has started with the speech of the Turkish Foreign Minister Haqan Fidan.
00:51The Turkish Foreign Ministry is hosting the event,
00:54and Haqan Fidan once again reiterated that Israel's policies of expansion
01:00are constituting a danger for regional and even global security.
01:07And he also welcomed the approach to getting closer to a ceasefire in the conflict around Iran
01:15and reminded that the world, once that is achieved,
01:19has to turn back its attention also to the conflict in Ukraine, which remains unresolved.
01:26In that context, there was a panel following that of Fidan's speech
01:31where NATO Deputy Secretary General took part and she stated there that NATO has to be prepared
01:40to lift its, to increase its spending on defense measures and on armament
01:46and take a more decided posture against, let's say, adversaries.
01:53Following that, in another panel spoke Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
01:59This all goes in this same forum, and actually the Turkish government is proud of bringing together
02:05voices that are in conflict with each other.
02:08And Sergei Lavrov was questioned about NATO's future,
02:11given that U.S. President Donald Trump had announced possible retreat of his country
02:16from the military alliance.
02:18Lavrov said he does not believe that NATO will dissolve quite the opposite.
02:22He believes that NATO will become a more aggressive block, despite the possible development that the U.S. may stop
02:30funding
02:31NATO's institutions and may more pivot to China, as was announced by previous U.S. administrations.
02:42A lot of panels are ongoing here on the forum where different politicians and experts are speaking.
02:49But meanwhile, there are also bilateral meetings between the delegations.
02:53For instance, there is an Iranian delegation here, and there is a strong Pakistani delegation here.
03:00The letter headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif, who is, so my sources tell me,
03:10also conducting talks with the Iranian counterparts in advancing, in pursuing more confidence-building measures.
03:18The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan,
03:24and all delegations are making use of this event to help bilateral talks.
03:30But at the same time, panels are continuing also on regional or local issues.
03:35For instance, countries such as Serbia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania came together in a forum
03:44discussing connectivity between their countries, that is, establishing new connections,
03:49transportations, connections between their countries, and except for Albania, all of the participating countries
03:56were members of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
04:00Another forum participating with countries from Latin America, Costa Rica, Guatemala,
04:07they talked about continental challenges, such as transnational crime, migration,
04:15and how to challenge the policies of the current U.S. administration, Donald Trump.
04:23So there is many different topics, many different panels happening here simultaneously,
04:28and this will continue until today's evening, here on Saturday, and will, the diplomacy forum will finish tomorrow
04:37with the closing speech of Hakan Fidan, the Turkish Foreign Minister.
04:43We are following this event here on the spot in the city of Antalya.
