15th ECO Summit: Renewed Commitment for Regional Integration.

Byline: Muhammad Asif Noor

Turkmenistan hosted the 15th Summit of Heads of State of Economic Cooperation Organization with the theme "Together into the Future". The Summit was chaired by the President of Turkmenistan while the President of Turkey as the Chairman of the previous summit opened the forum. The next Chairman of the ECO summit is the President of Azerbaijan. Heads of states from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as well as the ECO Secretary General participated. The participants stressed how to increase cooperation on trade, energy, climate, and culture. Sharing country positions, the participating Heads of states addressed the perspectives and future cooperation with the signing of multiple multilateral agreements and Memorandum of Understandings. ECO is a regional politico-economic organization founded in 1985 in Tehran by Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan.

Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan later joined the ECO as full members and regularly take part in the organization's core activities. The summit was organized at an important time in the wake of ongoing socio-political developments in the region and the growing need for international cooperation in many areas. It is also enlightening that the issue of Afghanistan was discussed during the summit with consideration that ECO members are key stakeholders of the Afghan peace process being the immediate neighbors of Afghanistan.

All the ECO members share security concerns with Afghanistan and are ready to cooperate for lasting peace because but the success of many development projects such as CASA 1000, TAPI, and UAP railways is deeply linked with stability in Afghanistan. The members vowed to work together to address the regional issues while exploring potential economic opportunities which can make ECO a powerful regional organization in the future.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov shared a detailed account of the issue of Afghanistan and called on participants to seriously support the Afghan Peace Process to avert any humanitarian crisis in the country. President of Turkmenistan also highlighted the foreign policy of Turkmenistan that attaches great significance to the ECO. ECO members commit themselves to support the development of critical sectors such as health care, education, and communication. The economy of Afghanistan must be revitalized by the release of...