Economic Cooperation Organization Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

The 21st meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Council of Ministers (COM) was held in Tehran on Nov. 26, 2013. The foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, the Kyrgyz Republic and Turkey attended, as well as the national security and foreign affairs adviser to the prime minister of Pakistan, the economy minister of Turkmenistan, the deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan and the ambassadors of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in Iran.
 
The COM meeting followed the meeting of the senior officials that took place on Nov. 24 and 25.
 
The ministerial council represents the highest decision-making body of ECO and is composed of the ministers of foreign affairs of the member states. The council, which meets annually, is primarily responsible for formulating policies, strategies and approving the organization’s work programs. It also has the responsibility for reviewing and adopting the reports of the Regional Planning Council (RPC), the Council of Permanent Representatives (CPR) and ECO specialized agencies.
 
The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, welcomed the participating delegations to the opening session of the COM meeting and expressed his country’s commitment to regional cooperation. He also called for reforms to be made in the near future to the institutional structure and planning aspects of the organization to make it more effective.
 
This year’s meeting of the ECO ministerial council marked the transfer of the organization’s chairmanship from Azerbaijan to Iran, which will hold the title until the next ECO meeting. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif took over the chairmanship from his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, during the opening ceremony.
 
Zarif called for deeper and broader cooperation among the member states to achieve regional growth and development. He indicated that Iran believes that in today’s world, such cooperation could prepare the ground for the regional countries to play more important roles.
 
Shamil Aleskerov, the ECO secretary-general, then briefed the meeting participants about the organization’s activities and developments. He called on the member states to enhance their cooperation in trade and in the transport and energy sectors. He particularly encouraged rapid implementation of the ECO Trade Agreement, a preferential trading arrangement which aims to increase regional trade by reducing tariffs.
 
The ministers of foreign affairs and member state representatives in attendance also reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to the goal of regional cooperation.
 
In his remarks, Rouhani called for reforms to the organization to enable it to address the needs of regional countries and the member states. He added that given the current situation of the global economy and emerging crises, cooperation within the framework of regional organizations can serve to protect ECO members from international economic upheavals. Rouhani also stated that boosting regional trade could have a positive effect on the economic development of all the ECO member states.
 
Rouhani underlined that the favorable geographic location of ECO member states and the existence of north-south and east-west transport corridors in these countries further strengthen confidence that in future ECO will be an even larger and more influential structure. The cooperation of ECO member countries over the past 20 years will be the foundation for their future relations, he said, and although according to the Iranian president, the current level of cooperation among ECO member states is unsatisfactory, the necessary infrastructure is in place for the further development of ties.
 
“If trade relations between ECO countries expand, this will give impetus to their development as well as create good conditions for investment,” Rouhani said. He also stressed that changes should take place within ECO to contribute to the expansion and deepening of cooperation among the members of the organization.
 
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu said that global challenges such as economic and financial crises, energy and food security and climate changes as well as regional political transformation processes in the ECO region call for prompt and coordinated action at the regional and global levels, and therefore regional cooperation and solidarity have become more important than ever. He indicated that in this regard, ECO provides member states with a solid basis to enhance collective efforts in order to help to meet contemporary challenges. He underlined the fact that ECO members have a unique geostrategic location and that the ECO region, with its significant economic assets, vast natural resources and dynamic work force has huge development potential that should be utilized in the interests of all ECO nations. Davutoğlu also referred to the fact that the ECO, founded in 1985, does not yet have an operative trade agreement and the level of intra-ECO trade, is unfortunately, still far from the target envisaged in the ECO Vision 2015. In this context, he underlined, inter alia, the following:
 
“Enhancing the volume of trade must be the most important aspect of any economic cooperation model. In this regard, the idea of the ECO Trade Agreement [ECOTA] presents a great opportunity. However, not all member states are party to this initial trade cooperation agreement. We must strive to ensure that ECOTA becomes operational as soon as possible, at least among the parties that have submitted their lists and completed all the other legal and procedural requirements. ECO, as a multinational economic platform that aims to contribute to economic stability and prosperity in the region, should immediately put ECOTA into force.
 
“Furthermore, the objective of enhancing intra-regional trade requires the presence of a well-functioning system of transport in our region. Our region is at the heart of Eurasia, at the crossroads of three continents. The implementation of the Transit Transport Framework Agreement [TTFA] and the realization of our transport and logistics corridors will be instrumental in establishing viable region-wide corridors of transport,” Davutoğlu added.
 
Davutoğlu also noted the significance of the completion of the Marmaray rail project connecting Asia to Europe under the Istanbul strait and how it contributes to the objectives of ECO.
 
Heading into the 30th anniversary of ECO, member states obviously, now more than ever, need to create an effective and productive organization. Davutoğlu also expressed his firm conviction that a comprehensive structural and financial reform process is required to achieve the fundamental objectives of the organization. Davutoğlu said that the formation of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) constituted a unique opportunity for the improved functioning of ECO and the secretariat. He praised the valuable efforts of the EPG and he underlined his belief that the EPG recommendations that were endorsed at the COM meeting last year in Baku, Azerbaijan deserved more attention from member states, indicating that the EPG had already said what was necessary for the organization to do. He stressed that now it is time to implement the recommendations of the EPG without further delay.
 
The EPG was established on the suggestion of Turkish President Abdullah Gül during the ECO summit in 2010 in order to submit recommendations aimed at enhancing the dynamism, efficiency and visibility of the organization. The chairman of the EPG presented the group’s report with its recommendations to the ministerial council last year in Baku.
 
Özdil Nami, minister of foreign affairs of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), which has observer status in ECO, was also present at the ECO meeting. Davutoğlu said that he is sure that the presence of the KKTC as an observer member will enrich the common efforts of ECO members to create a more prosperous region.
 
A communiqué from the Tehran Ministerial Council referred to the reform process of ECO based on the EPG report in the following terms: “(Foreign ministers and head of delegations) building on two decades of experience, decided to move the reform process of ECO forward on the basis of the recommendations of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) and instructed the ECO secretary-general to arrange, in cooperation with the member states, the timely conclusion of the said process for enhancing the dynamism, efficiency and visibility of the organization. The council instructed the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) to finalize and approve the roadmap for the implementation of the recommendations of the EPG by August 2014 with a view to its earliest implementation.”
 
At the meeting in Tehran, it was also agreed that the reform process shall address the regulatory, institutional, budgetary and other requirements of the organization to put in place a reliable and durable cooperation framework for the ECO region.
 
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation. The organization replaced the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) which suspended its activities in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Nevertheless, the founding members of the RCD deemed it necessary to reactivate the organization under a different name which, they thought will better serve their purpose.
 
The organization was expanded in 1992 to include seven new members -- Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
 
ECO provides its member states with a platform to discuss means of improving economic development and promoting trade and investment opportunities.
 
The ECO countries cover a vast contiguous territory. Its population of 450 million people, extensive natural resources spread over an area of 8 million square kilometers and important geo-strategic location makes ECO a bridge between Asia to the east and Europe to the west.
 
We should always keep in mind the fact that when ECO functions in the future as an efficient, dynamic and visible organization, it will serve the best interests of the member states. For this to happen, the combined political will of the member states is needed.
 
The next meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers is scheduled to be held in Islamabad in 2014.