The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), Capital Development Authority (CDA), and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administrations have begun to make arrangements for the forthcoming 13th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) to be held in Islamabad on March 1. The last summit was held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan in October 2012. The ECO was formed in 1985 by Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, and now also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, for a total of 10 member states.
A meeting was held at the foreign office here on Friday to review the arrangements for the summit, presided by Advisor for Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and attended by the Capital Administration and Development minister, Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz, Islamabad Chief Commissioner Zulfiqar Haider, and other officials.
The meeting reviewed different committees which were tasked to prepare plans for security, hospitality, food, reception, beautification of routes, transport, and other matters.
According to sources, the foreign minister of Afghanistan, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the prime ministers Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and the deputy prime minister of Uzbekistan will represent their countries at the ECO summit.
The summit will be preceded by the 22nd meeting of the ECO Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) on February 28. Senior officials from the member states are expected to meet on February 27 to make final preparations for the COM meeting and the summit.
The summit is expected to review the state of affairs of the ECO in the light of emerging global and regional circumstances and agree on the course of actions that the organisation should follow in expanding regional economic cooperation among its member states. The ECO Vision 2025 is also expected to be formulated and adopted.