A summit of seven west and central Asian leadersagreed on Friday to liberalise trade, attract more foreign investment and build cooperation in greenenergy to strengthen regional economic integration.
The Economic Cooperation Organization gathering also agreed to improve transport connectivityand restore post-conflict areas across the region as part of a long-term development strategy to 2035, the organisation announced.
The summit, held under the theme "A New Vision for the ECO for a Sustainable and Climate Resilient Future," was attended by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Azerbaijani counterpartIlham Aliyev, Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian, Kyrgyzstan's SadyrJaparov, Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The roadmap builds on ECO 2025, an earlier strategy emphasizing regional integration, trade andtransport.
Azerbaijani presidential aide for foreign policy Hikmet Hajiyev told Reuters the ECO2035 strategy expands its scope to include green energy cooperation, digitalization, and socialinclusion.
Hajiyev said Azerbaijan plans to establish a regional green energy centre and a combinedtransport-energy hub under the new framework, though investment figures have yet to befinalised.
In an address, Aliyev highlighted Azerbaijan’s emergence as a regional energy and investmenthub, noting $350 billion had been invested in the country’s economy in the past two decades.
The meeting was held in the capital of the former breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
In 2023,Azerbaijan retook the whole of the enclave, where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de factoindependence for decades.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have backed a peace treaty, but tensions between the twoneighbours remain high.Erdogan said he hoped Khankendi in future could become a "centre of peace and development inthe South Caucasus."
The ECO 2035 strategy is expected to be formally adopted at the organization’s Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Kazakhstan this November.