ECO Secretary General met

H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Press Release
 

Tehran, 25 January 2005

On January 25, 2005 the ECO Secretary General met with H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The meeting took place in Tehran during Mr. Aliev’s official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The ECO Secretary General informed the President on the current activities of the Economic Cooperation Organization and its future plans. Particularly, the ECO Secretary General pointed out the need of taking practical measures to operationalize the ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA). He mentioned that the proposed “fast track” approach on the implementation of ECOTA has been supported by a number of ECO Member States.

In this regard, at the initial stage it is advisable to launch the ECOTA by those Member States, which have already shown their readiness and interest. Other Member States may join the implementation of ECOTA later as and when they are ready.

The Azerbaijani President expressed his understanding and agreed with this approach.

Further, the ECO Secretary General informed that the relevant procedures for starting Feasibility Study on Interconnection of Power Systems of ECO Member States with the financial support of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) would be completed soon.

The President emphasized that Azerbaijan is very interested in conducting the above mentioned feasibility study and subsequent implementation of the project. He also informed that Azerbaijan is cooperating closely with Iran and Russian Federation in the field of energy and that efforts are being made to interconnect Azerbaijan’s power system with energy networks of these countries. Energy trade turnover with Iran is expected to reach 700 MW.

The ECO Secretary General informed Mr. Ilham Aliev about the ECO Special Fund for Reconstruction of Afghanistan and shared with him the ECO plans to establish the ECO Trade and Development Bank in Istanbul and to designate Coordinator Member States for various ECO priority projects in order to facilitate their implementation.

The ECO Secretary General expressed his gratitude to the Azerbaijani Government for its decision to host the 9^th ECO Summit in Baku in 2006.

Mr. Aliev stated that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the ECO activities and will further take an active part in ECO events. He stressed that Azerbaijan supports practical implementation of the above mentioned priority projects of the Organization.

The Azerbaijani leader assured that the next ECO Summit in Baku will be organized by Azerbaijan at an appropriate level.

[Home]  [Contact us]  [Feedback]  [Back]