Tehran Declaration

 

            The Sixth Summit Meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organisation was held in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran on 10th June, 2000. The meeting presided over by His Excellency Seyed Mohammad Khatami, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was also attended by:

  

H.E. Mr. Burhanuddin Rabbani, President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan;

H.E. Mr. Heydar Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan;

H.E. Seyed Mohammad Khatami, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran;

H.E. Mr. Kassymzhomart Tokaev, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

H.E. Mr. Askar Akaev, President of the Kyrgyz Republic;

H.E. General Pervez Musharraf, Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan;

H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmonov, President of the Republic of Tajikistan;

H.E. Mr. Mehmet Kececiler, State Minister of the Republic of Turkey;

H.E. Mr. Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan;

H.E. Mr. Islam Karimov, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

            The Heads of State/Government of the Member States of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) held their sixth meeting in a friendly and congenial atmosphere in Tehran. They exchanged views on issues of regional interest and discussed the future strategy of ECO in the new millennium towards accelerating the efforts for socio-economic development in the ECO Region.

The Heads of State/Government:

Bearing in mind that the Member States of ECO share a common destiny and common aspirations for a prosperous ECO region as enshrined in the Treaty of Izmir;

Reaffirming their commitment to the noble aims and lofty objectives of the Organisation, realization of  which is bound to stimulate greater economic, technical, scientific, educational and cultural interaction as well as infrastructural cooperation bringing closer the peoples of the ECO region;

Recalling their earlier Communiques/Declarations adopted in the previous five ECO Summits held in Tehran, Istanbul, Islamabad, Ashgabat and Almaty over the past decade;

Recalling the pioneer documents of the Organisation namely the Quetta Plan of Action, Istanbul Declaration, Almaty Outline Plan for the Development of Transport Sector in the ECO region, Economic Cooperation Strategy for the ECO Region and the Ashgabat Declaration on the Development of Transport and Communication Infrastructure and Network of Transnational Pipelines in the ECO region;

Cognizant of rapid changes in the global economic and trade patterns, evolving communication highways and exponential development of science and technology and the need for strategy that ECO should adopt in the new millennium to meet these challenges;

Conscious of the emerging patterns of globalization as well as recognizing the rights of all the states to determine freely their own political, economic and social systems; and emphasizing that such a trend should not lead to increasing the gap between the developed and developing countries; and appreciating the on-going cooperation among the ECO Member States on this issue;

Welcoming His Excellency President Mohammad Khatami’s initiative on “Dialogue among Civilizations” for which the UN has designated the year 2001 as the UN year of Dialogue among Civilizations in order to promote this concept through planning and implementation of appropriate cultural, educational and social activities both at national level and in the regional and global context;

Also welcoming the initiative of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic H.E. Mr. A. Akaev endorsed at the 53rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, declaring the year 2002 as the International Mountain Year with a view to promoting the idea by organizing appropriate activities at the national level as well as in the context of the ECO region;

Recalling a series of UN General Assembly resolutions entitled “Cooperation between the United Nations and ECO”, adopted during its 50th, 51st, 52nd, 53rd and 54th sessions, all of which, inter alias, emphasize the need for various agencies of the UN system and relevant international financial institutions to join efforts towards implementation of economic projects and programmes of ECO;

Taking note of the Report of the Secretary General of ECO on the activities of the Organisation since the last ECO Summit Meeting held in Almaty (Kazakhstan) in May 1998;

1.ENDORSED  the decisions taken at the 9th and 10th Meetings of the ECO Council of Ministers held in Baku in May 1999 and in Tehran in June 2000 respectively.

2.EXPRESSED satisfaction on the attention paid to the priority areas for cooperation namely transport and communications, trade and energy, in particular holding of Ministerial Meetings in these sectors; and welcomed the decision to hold the Ministerial Meetings also in Agriculture, Industry and Human Development sectors.

3.EXPRESSED satisfaction at the pace of progress in the implementation of the ECO Decade of Transport & Communications (1998-2007) approved in the second ECO Ministerial Meeting on Transport and Communications (1998) particularly the steps being taken to develop railway transportation in the ECO region and called upon the Member States to accelerate their efforts in successful execution of these endeavours.

4.NOTED with satisfaction the successful outcome of the third ECO Ministerial Meeting on Transport and Communications held in Islamabad in April 2000 which resulted, inter alias, in the adoption of the Annexes of the ECO Transit Transport Framework Agreement  (TTFA) and called upon the signatory Member States to expedite the ratification procedures for entering into force of this Agreement and expressed satisfaction on the adoption of the Terms of Reference and working mechanism of the ECO Permanent Commission on Transport and Communications.

5.NOTED the decision of the 3rd ECO Ministerial Meeting on Transport and Communications to ask the Secretariat to refer the matter regarding the introduction of the ECO Multilateral Quota for Road Transport Permits and harmonization of bilateral road permit prices to an ECO body for further study and report back to the higher decision making organs of the ECO.

6.APPRECIATED the key role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in keeping operational the ECO Shipping Company, and in accordance with the decision of the Third ECO Ministerial Meeting on Transport and Communications to enhance the efficiency of this project, called upon the concerned signatory Member States to fulfill their commitments and participate actively in this project.

7.EMPHASIZED the need for balanced sustainable development for all peoples and nations through collective partnership and cooperation in order to eradicate hunger, illiteracy, disease, poverty and reduce unemployment.

8.NOTED with concern that the liberalization of international trade has not provided benefits for all developing countries, and underlined the need to restore confidence in the multilateral trading system through enhanced participation of all developing countries. Also stressed the principle of universal membership of the WTO and called for acceleration of the accession process without political conditionalities. Also urged all WTO Members to refrain from placing excessive demands on developing countries seeking accession to WTO.

9.EXPRESSED satisfaction at the fruitful outcome of the First Ministerial Meeting on Commerce/Foreign Trade held in Tehran in March, 2000, which resulted, inter alia, in the signing of the ECO Framework Agreement on Trade Cooperation and urged the signatory Member States to accelerate necessary procedures for its early implementation.

10.NOTED with appreciation the cooperation between ECO and other international and regional organizations dealing with trade such as WTO, ITC, UNCTAD, ESCAP and IDB, particularly the technical and financial assistance rendered to the ECO region by WTO and ITC; urged the Secretariat to continue its efforts for implementation of the ITC’s Project on “Promoting Intra-ECO Tade”; also appreciated the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for organizing a seminar on “Trade Negotiations Simulation” for ECO Member States at Tehran in May, 2000 and expressed the hope that WTO would continue to organize similar events in future.

11.CALLED upon the concerned Member States to complete the pending formalities for the early establishment and operationalization of the ECO Trade and Development Bank and ECO Reinsurance Company.

12.STRESSED the importance of increasing international cooperation to address the challenges of globalization through the full participation of the developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the international economic and financial policy decision making process, as well as reversing the trend of marginalization of many developing countries and countries with economies in transition, in the areas of trade, finance and technology and noted Pakistan’s call to hold an International Conference on Governance of Globalization with a view to ensuring equity and justice in the functioning of the global economy.

13.WELCOMED the holding of the 1st Energy/Petroleum Ministers’ Meeting in Islamabad in November, 2000 and called upon the Member States to cooperate fully for a successful outcome of this important event.

14.REITERATED the Ashgabat Declaration (May 14, 1997) and the 10th Regional Planning Council Meeting’s Report (February 7-10, 2000) on oil and gas pipeline routes and on ensuring a meaningful development to economic cooperation and providing the landlocked oil and gas producing ECO Member Countries with access to the world energy markets.

15.EXPRESSED satisfaction on the regional arrangements made by the ECO Member States for transporting the region’s oil and gas to different parts of the world.

16.EXPRESSED pleasure on setting up the High Level Experts Group (HLETG) on ECO Oil and Gas Pipeline Route(s) and its success in preparation of Terms of Reference (TOR) for a study to determine economically viable and environmentally safe ECO Oil and Gas Pipeline Route (s) by taking into consideration the already existing new agreements between some ECO Member Countries and non-member countries.

17.REITERATED the significance of promoting safe and effective interconnection and Parallel Functioning of ECO Countries Power Systems and expressed satisfaction over the prepared Terms of Reference (TOR) for a study on the matter by the Specialized Experts Task Group (SETG) on Power; called upon the ECO Member States to explore the possibility of electricity transmission among themselves.

18.NOTED the region’s rich mineral resources and called upon the Member States to enhance their cooperation in the mineral sector for preparation of appropriate Plan of Action in this field that will promote the region’s economic prosperity.

19.REITERATED the growing importance of environmental issues and encouraged the Member States to extend their support in the implementation of the ECO Plan of Action on Environment and stressed the need for the Member States to pay due attention to environmental issues, in cooperation with other international and regional organizations, in particular to environmental problems related to Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea, Sarez Lake Basin and the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site.

20.CALLED UPON the Member States to enhance mutual cooperation in the Agriculture, Industry and Human Development sectors for formulation of appropriate programmes and projects to be carried out with possible assistance from relevant UN and other agencies and requested the Member States to participate actively in the Ministerial Meetings in these sectors.

21.WELCOMED the proposal for developing cooperation among the Member States in tourism sector and called upon them to prepare the ground for promotion of tourism in the region on a sustainable basis taking advantage of the work being done by other regional and international organizations in the same field.

22.STRESSED the importance of modern information technology and called upon the Member States to play their due roles in the establishment of ECO Intra-regional Network (ECO-NET); also emphasized the need for a Data Bank on ECO Member States’ educational and training institutions in the field of Information Technology with a view to enhancing cooperation in this vitally important sector.

23.TOOK NOTE of the problem of production, transit and abuse of narcotic drugs and their ill effects on the Member States and stressed for a collective and integrated strategy to fight with the narcotics problem in the region.

24.WELCOMED the start of the operations of the ECO-UNDCP Project on Drug Control Coordination Unit (DCCU) in the ECO Secretariat since July 1999 and urged the Member States to extend their utmost possible cooperation for the successful implementation of the project.

25.NOTED with satisfaction the start of activities of the ECO Cultural Institute and called for promotion and awareness of ECO region’s common cultural heritage through launching of appropriate projects and programmes; urged the Member States who had not yet ratified the Charter of ECI, to do so and invited the non-signatory Member States to accede to the Charter of the Institute; and urged ECO Cultural Institute to follow up the issues regarding “Dialogue among Civilizations” in the framework of ECO cultural commonalities.

26.ALSO URGED the Member States signatory of the Agreements related to ECO Science Foundation and ECO Educational Institute to fulfill their obligations to make these entities operational as early as possible.

27.APPRECIATED the Secretariat’s endeavours with regard to establishment and consolidation of Organisation’s cooperative relations with regional and international organizations such as UNDP, UNDCP, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO etc. which has paved the way for accelerated development of various ECO programmes and projects through provision by the latter of technical and financial assistance; also urged the Member States to extend full support to ECO Secretariat and UNDP in their joint endeavour for preparing a Human Development Report.

28.APPRECIATED the decision of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to accord Observer status to ECO in its relevant organs; called upon the ECO Member States which are also members of WTO to provide appropriate support and assistance to the ECO Member States seeking accession to WTO; also welcomed the signing of the MOUs between ECO on the one hand and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) on the other.

29.WELCOMED the growing cooperation between ECO and IDB and in this context expressed pleasure at the signing of a Technical Assistance (Grant) Agreement in September 1999 in Tehran under which the latter will provide grant funds for implementation of the ECO/IDB/ESCAP/UNCTAD joint project on Introduction of Multi-modal Transport Operations in the ECO region, the IDB offer to support ECO/IDB/ICARDA/FAO Project identification missions in agriculture sector to selected ECO Member States; and their possible assistance in Power Trade.

30.APPRECIATED successful holding of the 3rd ECO Trade Fair in Bandar Anzali (Iran) in July 1998; and welcomed the initiative of the Government of Pakistan to hold the next ECO Trade Fair in Karachi in the second half of the year 2000 and called upon the Member States to hold similar intra-regional fairs and exhibitions and actively participate in such events.

31.NOTED with satisfaction the completion of the Reorganization and Restructuring process of the Organisation with the assistance of UNDP which has enhanced the efficiency of the Organisation.

32.APPRECIATED the important contribution of the Secretary General H.E. Mr. Onder Ozar to the implementation of the restructuring process of the ECO as well as to the expansion of its cooperative relations with other regional/international organizations/institutions thus ensuring the ECO a befitting stature in the international arena.

33.WELCOMED the appointment of H.E. Mr. Abdolrahim Gavahi as the new Secretary General of ECO with effect from 13 August 2000 and expressed confidence that he would continue the present course on promoting regional cooperation and enhancing the image of ECO.

The participating Heads of State/Government expressed their sincere thanks and profound appreciation to the Honourable President, the Government and the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the warm welcome and traditional hospitality extended to them and their entourage during their stay in Tehran and for the excellent arrangements made for the Summit Meeting.

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