Iran to fully support Pakistan during ECO chairmanship:Official

Pakistan to get ECO rotating chairmanship in a few days after ECO summit of heads of states in Islamabad.

In an interview with IRNA on the sidelines of SOM, Majid Bizmark, Director General For Multilateral Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said, 'I would also like to appreciate the support that Iran received from all member states, the Secretary-General and his team, during its chairmanship.

Iran assures the friendly country Pakistan of full support and cooperation in fulfilling its duties as the chair.

“In the past 4 years since the last meeting of the Council of Ministers (November 2013, Tehran) Iran as the chair, in close cooperation with other member states as well as the Secretariat, had a lot of activities and achievements.

He said, 'During our chairmanship, we together were able to hold 3 Regional Planning Commision meetings, more than 30 meetings of council of permanent representative, as well as numerous sectoral meetings in different areas of cooperation especially in the fields of trade, energy and transport, with participation of concerned representatives of the member states.

“In this period of time, some important ECO projects have been finalized and some have initiated, inter alia , the commencement of the process for establishment of ECO Electricity, Market, the inauguration of the rail corridor between, Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan, Inauguration of RISCAM Secretariat and so on. It shows our collective and sincere commitment to ECO goals and objectives.”

“Now it is high time to handover the chairmanship to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, one of the ECO founding members. I am confident that Pakistan, thanks to its vast experience in international and regional organizations could contribute a lot for materialization of ECO goals and objectives.”

Bizmark said, 'I wish success for the esteemed government of Pakistan and its people in their endeavor to advance the lofty goals and objectives of the Organziation.'

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