BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 11. Kazakhstan believes that the ECO can and should play a more important strategic role in the development of the region, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu said at the 27th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Shusha, Trend reports.
Nurtleu stressed the growing role of the organization in light of the current geopolitical and geo-economic situation.
"We need to make joint efforts in promoting common projects of the member countries of the organization," he said.
He urged the participants of the meeting to jointly implement infrastructure projects in Kazakhstan, develop economic cooperation between ECO and CICA, resolve the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the key role in which will be assigned to the UN Regional Center for Sustainable Development in Central Asia and Afghanistan being established in Almaty.
Nurtleu also made a proposal to increase intra-regional trade and cargo flows, including using the potential of existing transportation and logistics routes between the countries of the region. He stressed the need to intensify cooperation in investment, energy, agriculture, finance, tourism, digitalization, production cooperation and food security.
Following the meeting, the parties adopted the Shusha Declaration.
Within the framework of the ECO Ministerial Council meeting, the Kazakh Foreign Minister held bilateral meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan Jalil Jilani and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Mehdi Safari. During the talks, the sides discussed topical issues of bilateral cooperation in trade-economic and investment spheres, as well as confirmed the intention to intensify interaction within multilateral structures.
Also on the margins of the event, Nurtleu held talks with ECO Secretary General Khusrav Noziri, with whom he discussed topical issues of Kazakhstan's cooperation with the organization. The parties agreed to continue work on further effective cooperation within the ECO.
The Economic Cooperation Organization was established in 1985. The main purpose of the ECO is to promote economic, technical and cultural cooperation among member states.
It includes 10 countries - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan has been a member of ECO since 1992.