ECO Summit to be held in Tehran Wednesday: Qashqavi

Tehran, March 7, IRNA – The 10th Summit Meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is to be held in Tehran on Wednesday, it was announced here on Saturday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi added that the 18th ECO foreign ministerial session will also be held in the Iranian capital on Monday.

Talking to reporters, he added that Azeri President Ilham Aliyev is to hand over the ECO presidency to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the ECO summit.

Presidents of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, of Tajikistan Imomali Rakhmon, of Turkey Abdullah Gul, of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, and President Aliyev are to attend the ECO summit as main guests, Qashqavi further announced.

He added that Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov and the Kyrgyz deputy prime minister are also to participate in the upcoming meeting as main guests.

Qashqavi said that Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani are attending the event as special guests. He added that representatives from several international bodies including the United Nations are also to take part in the ECO summit.

He termed Iran’s geographical position in the ECO region as “strategic”, saying that Iran plays a key role in facilitating trade exchanges among the ECO states.

Qashqavi also announced that revival of the Silk Road will be among the objectives of the ECO meeting.

He said the global financial crisis and ways to get out of the crisis will be major topics of discussion by the participating delegates in the ECO sessions./end