Türkiye will proceed to do its half to make the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) “more effective,” the nation’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu mentioned on Tuesday.
“Türkiye will continue to do its part to make ECO more effective and attain its true share in the world economy. We know that this is an ambitious goal,” Çavuşoğlu mentioned on the twenty sixth Council of Ministers Meeting of ECO within the Uzbek capital Tashkent.
Çavuşoğlu mentioned that with a robust will, the group’s members will strengthen it within the face of the present difficult international setting.
The ECO is a political and financial intergovernmental group based by Türkiye, Pakistan, and Iran in 1985 to function a platform to debate and enhance improvement, and promote commerce and funding alternatives. It presently has seven extra members: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
“Today, the global economy faces major challenges. Food and energy prices are constantly rising. There are disruptions and changes in global supply chains. Global economic growth has not fully recovered. To overcome these challenges, we should accelerate our economic cooperation,” Çavuşoğlu mentioned.
He added that member states ought to improve transportation and logistics networks, and make full use of devices to boost the regional commerce, such because the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement, often called ECOTA.
“We should continue our efforts in 2023 to turn ECO into a more effective and visible organization,” he confused.
Turning to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is among the many three observers of ECO, Çavuşoğlu mentioned: “It is, in fact, the most active observer in its contributions to our joint work. For the past 11 years, our Turkish Cypriot brothers participated and spoke at all high-level ECO meetings.”
SIDELINE MEETINGS
On the assembly’s sidelines, Çavuşoğlu met with Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to debate financial and protection cooperation, in addition to regional developments.
Çavuşoğlu additionally mentioned relations between Türkiye and Uzbekistan within the fields of financial system, tradition, and schooling with Bahtiyor Saidov, the Central Asian nation’s overseas minister.
After a separate closed-door assembly on the sidelines with Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, overseas minister of the TRNC, Çavuşoğlu additionally voiced Türkiye’s full assist for the TRNC.
