President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday held a number of meetings with world leaders and exchanged views on bilateral ties while in Samarkand, Uzbekistan to attend the ninth summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).

According to sources, Erdoğan met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev prior to the summit. Following the summit, he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Chairperson of the People's Council of Turkmenistan Gurbanguli Berdimuhamedov. The meetings were held behind closed doors away from the press.

In addition, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesperson Ömer Çelik also attended the meetings.

The OTS, formerly called the Turkic Council or the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, is an international organization comprised of prominent independent Turkic countries that work together to elevate relations and the union among themselves.

The OTS originally emerged as a summit between the heads of Turkic states in 1991 and eventually became an international council in 2009, holding over 10 summits so far.