Rouhani’s Pakistan visit to open new avenues of cooperation in bilateral ties: Pak diplomat

In an interview with IRNA, Pakistan former ambassador to the US and China, Akram Zaki said that Iran and Pakistan have historic and very strong relations; sometimes some elements try to create problems, but the intention of both sides is to keep this relationship smooth and take it forward.

The analyst expressing his views said that Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project should be completed as soon as possible. “We should also take advantage of importing electricity from Iran and I hope during this visit there will be progress on these issues,” he hoped.

Akram Zaki added that the ECO is an important regional organization which was formed by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in 1985 and then in 1992 in a conference in Islamabad it was upgraded and six Central Asian states and Afghanistan also became part of it.

He noted the main objective of the ECO is to promote economic progress in the ECO region.The trouble in Afghanistan had somehow affected the progress of the ECO, but the cooperation among these ten countries in various fields continue to grow.

“Now major changes are taking place in the world so it is the right time that the ECO member countries should work together for economic, political and security cooperation,” viewed the expert.

“Afghanistan has not been stable for many years, so we should try to do something for peace in Afghanistan because stable Afghanistan is in the interest of the whole ECO region and the issue of Afghanistan should be the main subject in the ECO summit agenda,” former ambassador suggested.

He said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has enormous opportunities and we hope the Iranian proposal to join the corridor and other Central Asian countries to become associated with this corridor will also be certainly an occasion to discuss. “Even if it is not discussed on agenda it would probably be formally discussed between delegates,” he believed.

Akram Zaki went on to say that the terrorist group Daesh and spread of terrorism in the ECO region are the main challenges to the ECO region.

The diplomat noted that Iran is playing a very positive role in restoring peace in the area and other countries of the ECO region must cooperate with Iran in this regard.

He added that maintaining peace is a major challenge to the ECO.

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