ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will open the 14th Summit of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), to be held virtually on Thursday (March 4), and share Pakistan’s perspective on COVID-19 challenges.
The theme of the summit is “Regional Economic Cooperation in the Aftermath of Covid-19”.
The prime minister will open the summit in Pakistan’s capacity as the Chair of the 13th Summit, held in Islamabad in March 2017. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will chair the 14th Summit, the Foreign Office said in a press release.
Sharing Pakistan’s perspective on COVID-19 challenges, the prime minister will outline his vision for regional economic development in line with the ECO’s founding principles of promotion of trade and connectivity, it added.
Pakistan, Iran and Turkey are the founding members of ECO, which was formed in 1985 from the erstwhile Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD). Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan later joined it.
As a founding member, Pakistan remains strongly committed to the ECO, which aims at promoting effective regional cooperation, with focus on communications, trade, culture and connectivity, the FO said.
The summit is the highest platform of the 10-member ECO. The summit meetings entail exchange of views on regional and global issues of interest to the ECO region and review of the progress in implementation of the ECO programmes and projects, it added.
Pakistan has been actively contributing towards advancement of the goals and objectives of ECO, including regional economic integration, the FO concluded.

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