Iran to host 28th ECO meeting next week

KABUL (Pajhwok): Iran is hosting the 28th meeting of foreign ministers of Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) member states in Mashhad city next week.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on Sunday that the upcoming meeting will be attended by ministers and senior officials from ECO member states, directors of regional specialized departments of the organization, and secretaries generals of a number of multilateral economic organizations.

Referring to ECO’s role in expansion of economic cooperation between regiona countries, he pointed out the ECO was one of the oldest regional economic cooperation arrangement among developing countries and regional economic development will top the meeting’s agenda.

The meeting will be chaired by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Iran is holding the ECO rotating presidency in 2024.

Afghanistan is a member of ECO, however, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the caretaker government has not commented so far whether it will attend the meeting or not.

Headquartered in Tehran, ECO was established by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey in 1985.

The main purpose of the organization is to promote economic, technical, and cultural cooperation among member states.

In 1992, the organization was expanded to include seven new members, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

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