14th OIC summit held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

14^th Islamic Summit organized by Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit was held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It was hosted by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. The summit, titled as “Mecca Summit: Together for the Future”, aimed at developing a unified stance on events in the Islamic world.

Key Points:

• The official agenda of the summit was to address current issues in the Muslim world and recent developments in a number of OIC member states.
• It discussed the regional security issues surrounded by the tensions between Iran and the US and its Gulf allies.
• It also focused on the question of Palestine- Islamophobia on countering extremism and terrorism and adopted a comprehensive strategy to combat Islamophobia.
• OIC appointed Yousef Aldobeay as its special envoy for Jammu & Kashmir.
• It extended the support for people of Jammu and Kashmir and towards achievement of their legitimate rights and called upon India to hold a referendum in J&K under the United Nations’ patronage.
• In a communique adopted during the summit, India slammed OIC for its reference to Jammu and Kashmir as “unacceptable”. It stated that OIC had no locus standi in matters relating to J&K and it should refrain from making such “unwarranted references”.

About OIC:
♦ Headquarters: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
♦ Founded: September 25, 1969
♦ Membership: 57 States
♦ It holds Islamic Summit once in 3 years.
♦ It has permanent delegations to the UN and the European Union (EU).