Senior officials finalize ECO summit agenda

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - A meeting of senior officials from member states of the Economic Corporation Organization (ECO) in Islamabad on Monday finalized an agenda for a forthcoming ECO summit to be held on Wednesday.

The two-day meeting which began on Sunday with Pakistan’s foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry in the chair comes ahead of the 22nd meeting of the ECO’s Council of Ministers to be held on Tuesday in Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

The two meetings are part of the 13th ECO summit, which will be held in Islamabad on Wednesday and is expected to be attended by heads of state and representatives from the 10 ECO member states, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The most recent meeting was attended by representatives from Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

ECO Secretary General, Turkey’s Halil Ibrahim Akca, as well as representatives of the ECO’s specialized agencies and regional institutions, were also present, Nafeez Zakaria, the foreign ministry spokesman confirmed in a statement.

The ECO was established in 1985 by Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan. It succeeded the Regional Cooperation for Development, which was founded in 1964 to promote cooperation among the three member states.