Rouhani: Tehran highly regards Economic Cooperation Organization

Tehran, Iran, February 28

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Tehran highly regards the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), said Iran's president Hassan Rouhani, prior to departing for Pakistan to attend the ECO meeting.

The ECO is the only important regional organization of which Iran is a founding member of, and Iran bears great responsibility to develop the organization, Rouhani said, IRNA news agency reported February 28.

The ECO meeting will be preceded by the 22nd Meeting of the ECO Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) on the same day.

“To develop our country we need the cooperation of others, neighbors in particular. Also, many members are our neighbors and our cooperation will be vital to the future of the region,” Rouhani said.

“The region is facing problems such as terrorism,” he noted, hoping that through cooperation at the ECO, the member states resolve regional problems.

The Summit is expected to review the state of affairs of ECO in the light of the new and emerging global and regional circumstances and agree on the course of actions ECO should follow in expanding regional economic cooperation among its Member States.

The new "ECO Vision 2025" is also expected to be adopted in Islamabad meetings.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan are the ten Member States of ECO. The last ECO Summit was held in October 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan.