New initiatives to strengthen Almaty-Istanbul transport corridor agreed upon – ECO Secretary-General
Commending the ECO’s work in 2022 the Secretary-General announced the key items of the agenda for further strengthening of the framework of regional economic cooperation.
According to him, the Tashkent Communique, adopted as the final instrument, the ECO countries unanimously agreed upon the ECO Regional Center’s Charter on disaster risk management, regional cooperation expansion to ensure energy security and sustainable energy, creation of a high-level dialogue platform on environmental cooperation, enhancement of regional cooperation in food security, as well as new initiatives to strengthen transport links, including Trans-Caspian routes as the Almaty-Istanbul corridor.
«For the region’s better connectedness, commercialization of Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran corridor, commissioning the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul cargo train, launching Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran corridor, commercializing the Iran-Teheran-Istanbul-ECO, creating railway and road networks from Almaty to Istanbul and Bandar Abbas, as well as increasing border crossings between the ECO member countries have become the main accomplishments since the Organization’s expansion,» said Noziri.
He went on to add that last year preparations began to create two new key corridors: Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran and Tajikistan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkiye believed to contribute greatly to the regional connectivity.
Earlier it was reported that mutual trade stood at $8.5 billion, up 34.8%, between Kazakhstan and ECO countries in 2022.