Iran’s Salehi heads for ECO meeting
Iranian Foreign Ministry caretaker Ali Akbar Salehi has departed Tehran for Turkey to attend the 19th Council of Ministers Meeting of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
The Iranian official is scheduled to deliver a speech at the ECO meeting, which will kick off in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Wednesday.
On the sidelines of the ECO Council of Ministers Meeting, Salehi plans to meet with several senior officials attending the event.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will also travel to Turkey on Thursday to participate in the 11th ECO summit.
The 10th ECO summit was held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in March 2009.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar will also head to Istanbul on Thursday to attend the meeting of ECO interior ministers.
Mohammad-Najjar is to address the summit and hold talks with his counterparts at the event, ISNA quoted Director-General of the Iranian Interior Ministry’s Public Relations Office Mehdi Azar-Makan as saying on Wednesday.
The ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey with the aim of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among member states.
The organization was expanded in 1992 to include seven new members, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
ECO members intend to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union.
ECO secretariat and cultural department are located in Tehran while its economic bureau is located in Turkey and its scientific bureau is based in Pakistan.
Source: presstv.ir
