ECO agrees economic integration strategy
A summit of seven west and central Asian leaders have agreed to liberalise trade, attract more foreign investment and build cooperation in green energy to strengthen regional economic integration.
The Economic Cooperation Organization gathering also agreed to improve transport connectivity and restore post-conflict areas across the region as part of a long-term development strategy to 2035, the organisation announced.
The summit, held under the theme "A New Vision for the ECO for a Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Future," was attended by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian, Kyrgyzstan's Sadyr Japarov, Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon, and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The roadmap builds on ECO 2025, an earlier strategy emphasising regional integration, trade and transport.
Azerbaijani presidential aide for foreign policy Hikmet Hajiyev told Reuters the ECO 2035 strategy expands its scope to include green energy cooperation, digitalization, and social inclusion.
Hajiyev said Azerbaijan plans to establish a regional green energy centre and a combined transport-energy hub under the new framework, though investment figures have yet to be finalised.
In an address, Aliyev highlighted Azerbaijan's emergence as a regional energy and investment hub, noting $350 billion had been invested in the country's economy in the past two decades.
The meeting was held in the capital of the former breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. In 2023, Azerbaijan retook the whole of the enclave, where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence for decades.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have backed a peace treaty, but tensions between the two neighbours remain high.
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