JEDDAH, 12 June 2006 — At the end of his official visit to Russia last week, the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was awarded Doctoris Honoris Causa from Moscow State University of International Relations. The award was given in recognition of his contribution to the strengthening of peace, international cooperation and friendly relations among nations.
Russia has been admitted to the OIC as an observer and will participate for the first time in the next Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan on June 19-21.
Ekmeleddin also met Russian President Vladimir Putin and the two discussed many of the current issues including initiatives by the Russian government for the reconstruction of Chechnya and the OIC’s readiness to play a possible active role in this regard.
