‘More Effective’
ISLAMABAD/ANKARA: Turkey could continue to do its part to make the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) “more effective,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.
According to the APP, “Turkey could continue to do its part to make the ECO more effective and attain its true share in the world economy. We know this is an ambitious goal,” Cavusoglu said at the 26th Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers in Tashkent.
Cavusoglu said that with a strong could, the organization’s members could strengthen it in the face of the current challenging international environment.
Economic Cooperation Organization
The ECO is the political and economic intergovernmental organization founded by Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan in 1985 to serve as the platform to discuss and improve development and promote investment and trade, and opportunities. It has seven other members: Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Cavusoglu said that “Today, the international economy faces challenges. Energy and food prices are constantly increasing. There are disruptions and changes in international supply chains.? International economic growth has not fully recovered. To overcome these main challenges, we should accelerate our economic cooperation,”.
He said that member states should enhance transportation and logistics networks and fully use instruments to improve regional trade, such as the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement (ECOTA).
He stressed that “We should continue the efforts in 2023 to turn the ECO into the more effective and visible organization,”.
Turning to the Turkey Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), among the three observers of the ECO, Cavusoglu said that “It is, in fact, the most active observer in its contributions to our joint work. For the previous 11 years, our Turkish Cypriot brothers participated and spoke at all high-level ECO meetings.” — APP
