The Informal Meeting of ECO Foreign Ministers in New York

(Tehran/ September 19, 2005)

ECO Secretariat, Tehran, September 26, 2005

Press Release

         The informal Meeting of ECO Council of Ministers was held on 19th  of September 2005, at the Un Headquarters, in the sidelines of the 60th Session of UN General Assembly. The Meeting was coordinated and hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN and chaired by H.E., Mr. Kassymzhomart Tokaev Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the current Chairman of the ECO Council of Ministers. Delegations from ECO States participated in the Meeting, including Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan, and Permanent Representatives of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyz republic to the United Nations. ECO’s recent activities and future plans as well as cooperation between UN and ECO were amongst the most important issues discussed during the Meeting.

          In conclusion of the Meeting, Press Communique was   issued which is given below.

 PRESS COMMUNIQUE

Informal Meeting of ECO Council of Ministers

(New York; 19 September, 2005)

           An Informal Meeting of Council of Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ЕСО) was held on 19 September 2005 at UN Headquarters, on the sidelines of the 60"' Session of UN General Assembly. The Meeting was hosted by the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan and chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan H.E. Mr. Kassymzhomart Tokaev. It was attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Turkey, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Permanent Representatives of the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, and Republic of Uzbekistan.

ECO Secretary General, Н.Е. Mr. Askhat Orazbay in his statement highlighted the current developments in ECO programmes/projects particularly in ЕCO Trade Agreement and ECO Trade & Development Bank, ECO Fund for Reconstruction of Afghanistan, inter-connection of power systems of ECO countries.

The Ministers/Representatives exchanged views on recent ECO activities and discussed the ways and means of further strengthening ECO cooperation with UN agencies and other relevant international and regional organizations especially UNESCAP, UNDP and FAO and urged to further promote cooperation with other organs of UN.

The Ministers/Representatives reaffirmed their commitments for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and ЕСО's efforts in achieving these goals through its programs and projects in areas of trade liberalization/facilitation, transport facilitation, energy, regional food security. They reviewed progresses in priority areas such as, ECO Trade Agreement (ЕСОТА), Transit Transport Framework Agreement, ECO Trade and Development Bank, energy trade, ECO Regional Program for Food Security. The Meeting also took note of the ECO activities in drug control and organized crimes.

They reiterated their belief that in achieving all the set goals оf ЕСО, private sector should become more active and play more important role. They drew attention to the reconstruction efforts of Afghanistan and urged wide participation of their business communities to ECO Trade and Investment Conference to be held in Kabul, on 9-10 November 2005.

The Ministers/Representatives reaffirmed their commitment towards achieving the aims and objectives of the ECO as set forth in the Treaty of  Izmir, guided by the need to promote sustainable economic and social development of their societies, raise living standards of their people.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan H.E. Mr. K.Tokaev reiterated his invitation to the Ministers to attend the formal meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers (the 15"' СОМ) to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan on 1st of October 2005.

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