PM to address 14th ECO summit today

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ISLAMABAD, Mar 04  : Prime Minister Imran Khan will virtually participate in the 14th ECO Summit today (Thursday) under the theme of ‘Regional Economic Cooperation in the aftermath of COVID-19.’

Prime Minister Khan will open the Summit in Pakistan’s capacity as the Chair of the 13th Summit, held in Islamabad in March 2017. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will chair the 14th Summit.

While sharing Pakistan’s perspective on COVID-19 challenges, the Prime Minister will outline his vision for regional economic development in line with ECO’s founding principles of promotion of trade and connectivity.

Pakistan is one of the founding members of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in addition to Iran and Turkey. The Organization was formed in 1985 from the erstwhile Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD).

Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan later joined as members of ECO.

As a founding member, Pakistan remains strongly committed to ECO which aims at promotion of effective regional cooperation, with focus on communications, trade, culture and connectivity.

The Summit is the highest platform in the 10-member ECO. The Summit meetings entail exchange of views on regional and global issues of interest to the ECO region and review of the progress in implementation of ECO programmes and projects.

Pakistan has been actively contributing towards advancement of the goals and objectives of ECO, including regional economic integration.