Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri on Friday left for Dushanbe, Tajikistan to attend the 14th Meeting of the Council of Ministers (COM) of the Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO).
The ECO Ministers will meet on September 12, ahead of the Summit of their leaders on September 14, a foreign office spokesman said.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will lead the Pakistani delegation at the Summit.
Besides Pakistan and Tajikistan, the Organisation include Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan as its members.
Foreign Minister Kasuri will address the Council of Ministers on September 12.
He is expected to underline the need to make ECO more active and effective as the primary vehicle of co-operation in the region.
The Foreign Minister would urge early implementation of Agreement4 including the ECU Trade Agreement (ECOTA) which is central to economic relations among the member states.
To promote inter regional trade Pakistan would urge member countries to establish ECO Trade and Development Bank and the ECO Re-insurance Company.
Pakistan would call for the construction of missing road and rail links in ISCO region. Such linkages would help enhance commercial inter-action between the member states.
ECO's long term perspective and sectoral priorities have been defined in the form of two Action plans; the Quetta plan of Action and the Istanbul Declaration and Economic Co-operation strategy for the ECU. Transport, Communication, Trade and Energy figure as the priority areas for this strategy.
Foreign Minister Kasuri will hold bilateral meetings with his Tajik counterpart Talbak Nazarov, Similar meetings would also be held with the Foreign Minister of other ECO member countries attending the conference.
Since its inception in 1992, Pakistan has been playing an active role to enable the organisation to realise it objective.
Pakistan hosted a meeting of ECO, Commerce and Trade Ministers in July 2003 during which the ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA) was signed. This is expected to come into force shortly.
Pakistan also hosted a Meeting of ECO Finance Ministers early this year which took important decisions to harmonise the fiscal and monitory policies.
Comments
Comments are closed.