Iran high level delegation to attend Pakistan ECO summit

Although it is a regional organization, the visit of the high level Iranian delegation to Pakistan could even strengthen the bilateral ties.

The Summit will be held on March 1st and will be preceded by the 22nd Meeting of the ECO Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) on 28th February in Islamabad while senior officials from the member states will meet on 27th February to make final preparations for the summit.

President of Iran Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are supposed to attend the summit.

ECO is a ten-member regional organization, which includes Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The ECO summit has great importance especially for Pakistan and other members of the regional organization.
There are reports that China and Russia will also send some representatives as observers in the summit.

Earlier Islamabad had to call off summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in November last year when India stepped down to participate in the meeting.

The last ECO summit was held in Baku in 2012 and now it is going to be held in Islamabad, in which the heads of the member states will participate. This is the second time that Pakistan is hosting the ECO summit.

The objective of the ECO is to promote economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the member states.

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