Kabul fully committed to Islamabad Declaration: Envoy

KABUL government.

Addressing the 13th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Islamabad, Zakhilwal said his country was fully committed to supporting the ECO VISION 2025 agenda and Islamabad Declaration.

He added despite ECO’s unique position and the region’s endowment with significant economic power, vast natural resources, dynamic workforces and huge development potentials, the region remained perhaps the least connected in the world.

At the summit, Zakhilwal urged Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to instruct an immediate opening of formal trade and transit routes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said the gates had been closed for about two weeks causing enormous hardship to ordinary people and damages to traders on both sides.   

The summit was attended by the presidents Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, prime ministers of Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and deputy prime minister of Uzbekistan.

The summit endorsed the Islamabad Declaration and ECO VISION 2025-- a ten years agenda which will serve as guiding principle for the region to achieve economic growth and prosperity.

The ECO VISION document and Islamabad Declaration were technically reviewed by the ECO Council of Ministers and Senior Officials Meeting.  

Addressing the summit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the grouping would be able to take longer strides in advancing the programs and activities of the organization with more understanding among the heads of states and governments.

Nawaz Sharif called for greater collaboration between members of the bloc with the aim to turn the region into "a model of peace, progress and prosperity.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his address called for early completion of reforms in ECO, strengthening of human resource of ECO Secretariat and a evolution of a mechanism for ownership of projects.

"Turkey is implementing a number of big infrastructure projects that would link the country with neighboring countries and regions through rail, roads, sea and air. This includes construction of the world's largest airport in Istanbul," he said.

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov informed the summit that construction work on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline has been started and implementation of this project is being realized with the participation of ECO member states.

Addressing the summit, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev laid special emphasis on mutual cooperation among the ECO countries in the field of infrastructure, connectivity, and transportation for the development and the progress of the region.

ECO Secretary General Halil Ibrahim told the delegates that the population of ECO region has reached 471 million and its GDP has crossed one trillion U.S. dollars. He said intra-trade of the region has improved to 8.7 percent in 2015 from 5.3 percent in 2000.

He pointed out that ECO continues to implement programs and plans decided by its decision making bodies. He said trade, transport and energy are the core areas being focused by the organization.

pr/ma