Housing Minister Dr Mohamed Muizzu has joined the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Extraordinary Summit on behalf of Maldives.

OIC member states were invited to the summit to convene for an extraordinary leaders’ summit in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday over the issue of Jerusalem.

The Extraordinary Summit is convened at the request of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his capacity as the Chair of the 13th Islamic Summit, following the announcement by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The OIC is an international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57-member states, with a collective population of over 1.6 billion as of 2008. The organization states that it is "the collective voice of the Muslim world" and works to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony".