ECO Secretary General Bid farewell with Iranian Foreign Minister

Press Release

ECO Secretary General, Seyed Mojtaba Arastou, upon the end of his tenure at the Organization met with Dr. Kamal Kharazi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this meeting Mr. Arastou briefed Dr. Kharazi on the activities taken place during the tenure Iran had as Secretary General of ECO. He referred to the increasing role of ECO as an active regional organization in the international scene and added that ECO is considering a long-term plan to expand its relations with other international organizations. He stressed that the relations of ECO and other Asian regional organizations, as well as UNESCAP is growing and in this line the 8^th Consultative Meeting of Sub regional Organizations of Asia and Pacific with UNESCAP was a good opportunity to introduce the potentials and role of ECO to these organizations, namely SARC, PIF and ASEAN.

Mr. Arastou also referred to the first joint conference of Asian and African regional organizations in Bandung and stated that this was an opportunity to present the interest of ECO in having a dialogue with African counterparts and exchange experiences. He referred to the signing of MOU with international organizations as a proper step towards strengthening the role of ECO. Mr. Arastou stated that there would be MOUs with UNEP and WMO in the near future. He stressed on the importance of the new mechanism devised for following up of the decisions of the policy-making bodies of ECO along side with the documentation system of the Secretariat providing access to all the Member States’ Embassies in Tehran as well as their capitals to all the documents of the organization.

Dr. Kharazi while appreciating the efforts of Mr. Arastou, attached great importance to the signing of ECOTA and said that through this important document ECO Member States would gain an expanded and effective trade among each other in the near future. He also stated that with a representative from Kazakhstan, the Central Asian member of the Organization, as the new Secretary General of ECO the share and role of these Member States would become more.

Dr. Kharazi while attaching importance to regional cooperation added that close cooperation of regional organizations of Africa and Asia should be considered seriously that would lead to economic development of both continents. He stressed that recently ECO could fortify and stabilize its role as an active regional organization in the international scale.

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