Tabnak – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Islamabad on teusday for a two-day visit in which he took part in the 13th Economic Cooperation Organization summit. In the post-nuclear deal situation that Iran has been relaxed from most part of the western sanctions, Rouhani’s visit could be interpreted as an attempt by Iran to engage more seriously in regional multilateral structures.
In a report of Rouhani’s trip, Press-TV writes that upon his arrival in Islamabad yesterday, Rouhani was welcomed by Pakistan’s Minister of States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch and was honored by a 21-gun salvo.
In his address to the summit today, Rouhani said that Asia is to take the lead from the rest of the world in economic supremacy from the second half of the 21st century onwards.
"The world economy’s heart is to beat in Asia from the second half of the present century,” President Hassan Rouhani said at the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)’s 13th plenary session.
"Emerging Asian economies will be changing the course of the world economy from the West toward the East. This change will turn the 21st century to the century of Asia’s supremacy,” President Rouhani further said at the forum.
Economic assessments, the Iranian chief executive said, showed that change in the economic position of some of ECO’s influential members over the next decade will again make the organization "the key to West-East interaction in the Asia of the future.”
Rouhani said that the ECO region was the shortest and most economical course for trade and transportation from Europe to the rest of Asia. He said, however, that there was much room for the enhancement of cooperation in the field of energy in the geographical region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, who went earlier to Islamabad for a meeting of ECO foreign ministers, had also said that the restructuring of the Organization needed to be based on an inclusive economic plan as well as adequate growth models.
"ECO is one of the oldest economic cooperation organizations in the developing world and in Asia. The geographical extent of this organization has in the last 25 years, with the additions to its member states, almost encompassed the whole region,” he said.
He stressed that ECO is a unique platform for cooperation and development, and that its members should put more focus on the group’s operational procedures.
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization which was established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the member states.
In 1992, the organization was expanded to include seven new members. Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are current member states of ECO.
The previous ECO summit was held in October 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the 21st meeting of the ECO Council of Foreign Ministers was held in November 2013 in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
