ECO Secretary General attended the Afro-Asian Sub Regional Organizations Conference (AASROC), in Bandung

          

Press Release

   

H.E. Ambassador Seyed Mojtaba Arastou, Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) attended the Afro-Asian Sub Regional Organizations Conference (AASROC), in Bandung, Indonesia, 28-30 July 2003. He addressed the meeting on the subject of “Dialogue on Asian-African New Strategic Partnership and Contribution of Asian-African Sub-Regional Organizations towards a New Strategic Partnership between Asia and Africa” .

         

This is the first time that ECO Secretary General is invited to attend such meetings. Mr. Arastou is attending the meeting upon the invitation jointly made by H. E. Dr. Nakosazana, Foreign Minister of South Africa and H. E. Dr. Hassan Wirajude Foreign Minister of Indonesia. AASROC is a new institutional initiative of Indonesia and South Africa to conduct Asian-African Conference in order to recognize the urgency of cooperation among the Asian and African Countries towards promoting economic development in the two continents.

 

Mr. Arastou in his statement briefed the meeting on the ongoing activities of the Organization and stressed that: The two continents of Asia and Africa have common problems of under development and many of the solutions would also be common. I therefore look forward to share with you our experiences of regional cooperation and would be intently listening to learn from your experiences.

 

He furthermore added that mechanisms like today’s Afro-Asian Sub Regional Organizations Conference would be very useful for all the sub-regions in Asia and Africa.

 

Mr. Arastou also stated that these series of Conferences will help bringing different African & Asian regions together. These have helped enabling policy makers see the bigger picture extending from East Asia to West Asia to North Africa to Central and East West Africa down to South Africa. A huge area with common problems and common aspirations. AASROC can do a lot to bring all of us together. This is a very important objective of these Conferences. We must seize the event and use it for benefit of all our regions. There has been a sustained focus internationally for bringing together regional organizations in order to support global efforts of cooperation on sustainable development goals. One of these efforts were 8th Consultative Meeting of Executive Heads of Sub-Regional Organizations (ASEAN, ECO, Pacific Islands Forum and SAARC) and UNESCAP in Tehran from 21-23 July 2003. I am proud to inform that ECO was the host and we found many synergies on which we would build. I intend to send the report of that meeting to all the organizations participating in today’s meeting.

  

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