Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani arrived today (Tuesday) on the official invitation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take part in the 13th Summit of the ECO Heads of States.

The visiting Iranian president was presented a guard of honour at Chaklala Airbase. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also likely to reach the federal capital today. The 13th Economic Cooperation Organisation Summit will be held in Islamabad on Wednesday, and will be preceded by the 22nd Meeting of the ECO Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) same day.

Senior Officials from Member States met yesterday Islamabad to make final preparations for the Summit. According to Rouhani’s deputy chief of staff for communications and information, Parviz Esmaeili, the Iranian president is also scheduled to meet with a number of participating heads of states on the sidelines of the Summit.

President Rouhani was accompanied by a number of ministers and advisers on this two-day visit.

The summit is expected to review the state of affairs of ECO in the light of the new and emerging global and regional circumstances and agree on the course of actions ECO should follow in expanding regional economic cooperation among its member states. The new ECO Vision 2025 is also expected to be adopted in Islamabad meetings. The Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan are the ten Member States of ECO. The last ECO Summit was held in October 2012 in Baku. The 21st COM meeting was held in November 2013 in Tehran.