The 14th online summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) took place on March 4. The meeting was attended by heads of state and government of the member countries.
Speaking at the summit, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani congratulated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the historic achievement in Karabakh.
"Like the people of Azerbaijan, your father would be proud of you," he said.
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani noted that the ECO is an essential platform for implementing member countries' views, adding that regional cooperation is important to minimize the adverse effects of the pandemic.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Secretary-General of the Turkish Council Baghdad Amreyev, President of Northern Cyprus Ersin Tatar, and Secretary-General of the International Energy Charter Urban Rusnak addressed the meeting.
The ECO, as an intergovernmental organization, was established in 1985 to strengthen economic, technical, and cultural cooperation between Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. The organization is considered a successor to the Organization for Regional Cooperation and Development, which operated in 1964-1979. On November 28, 1992, seven countries - Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan - joined the ECO; it currently has ten member countries. The day of the ECO expansion is marked in the organization's calendar as ECO Day.