The 17th meeting of D-8 Council of Foreign Ministers took place on 19 October in Istanbul, Turkey. Mr. Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu, Foreign Minister of Turkey chaired the meeting and Foreign Ministers and delegations from all the D-8 Member States attended the meeting. 

The meeting reviewed and discussed the latest and most important developments held within the Developing Eight Organization for Economic Cooperation (D-8) as well as the short and long-term goals, objectives and strategic course of action. The Council recommended the draft Istanbul Declaration 2017 and D-8 Istanbul Plan of Action for consideration of and adoption by the Summit. 

The Council took note of the important fact that with the completion of the first phase of its life-cycle by the 9th Summit in 2017 in Turkey, the second phase of the Organization would be a turning point to take the common agenda forward in a manner commensurate with the requirements for developments and the pace of change taking place within individual member states and the Organization as a whole. They discussed the best pursuit for the Organization for a smooth shift from its current state of a ‘Policy coordinating body’ to a mix of ‘Policy coordination & Project implementation’.