Iran Urges ECO’s Action to Strengthen Resilience
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The foreign minister of Iran called for collective efforts by the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to invigorate resilience in the face of various threats and to ensure food and energy security amid regional and international crises.
Hossein Amirabdollahian delivered a speech to the 26th meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers (COM) in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent on Tuesday.
The top Iranian diplomat said the ECO can present a successful model for South-South cooperation, interaction among the landlocked nations and the countries in the transit routes, collaboration among the producers and consumers of energy, as well as people-based cooperation in the tourist industry, scientific, academic and technological fields.
He noted that the global developments in recent years and their impacts on the region have highlighted the necessity of closer convergence and alignment among the regional states.
The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and its harmful effects and the recent crises threatening food security and energy security in the world clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of different countries, regardless of the volume of their economy, Amirabdollahian stated.
Stressing the need for all countries in the region and the world to strengthen their resilience in the face of possible future shocks, the Iranian minister said one of the available options for the materialization of that resilience is collective cooperation within the framework of multilateral mechanisms, including the ECO and the organizations established during the past thirty years.
He outlined plans to reinforce resilience through trade, transportation, energy, innovation and new technologies, and maximum integrity.
Founded as the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) in 1964 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, the forum was rechristened as the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in 1985.
The ECO region has more than 460 million inhabitants and expands over 8 million square kilometers of land, connecting the north to south, south and east to the west, Asia to Europe and Eurasia to the Arab World. Composed of some Caucasus, South, West and Central Asian countries, ECO is one of the oldest intergovernmental organizations.
The virtual 14th ECO Summit was held in March 2021 under the theme of ‘Regional Economic Cooperation in the aftermath of COVID-19’, whereby the highest ECO leadership put forward a number of tangible recommendations and post-COVID strategies to support the resumption of development activities in the region.