Kazakhstan announces priority areas for coop with Economic Cooperation Organization

During the meeting, at which the ECO Chairmanship moved from Pakistan to Tajikistan, the participants considered the reports of the ECO Secretary General and the implementation progress of ECO VISION 2025. The heads of delegations paid special attention to the issues of developing a new scale of assessments and ECO reforms, including its specialized agencies and regional institutions. The Council of Foreign Ministers appointed the representative of Iran, Hadi Soleimanpour, currently holding the post of Deputy Secretary General of the Organization, for the post of a new ECO Secretary General.

In his speech, the head of the Kazakh delegation focused on the ECO cooperation areas which are of high priority for Kazakhstan, including in the field of transport, regional trade and investment, as well as on the need for further ECO reforming in order to increase its effectiveness. The Deputy Minister also invited the participants to make use of the potential of the Astana International Financial Center.

As a result of the meeting, the ECO adopted the Dushanbe Communiqué.

On the sidelines of the Ministerial Council, Mr. Kamaldinov also met with the Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov, and Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif. The sides discussed preparations for the Fifth Caspian Summit. At the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, Sirojiddin Aslov, the Kazakh diplomat congratulated Tajikistan on the Chairmanship of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) for 2018-2020.
Kazakhstan joined the ECO in 1992. Currently, the members of the Organization include Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.