ECO Summit Opens in IranThe sixth summit of the 10-member Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) opened in Oran on Saturday.The two-day summit will review various topics such as ECO's status in international and regional economic cooperation as well as the organizations' future policies and projects. Heads of state of seven member states, namely Iran President Mohammad Khatami, Pakistan's Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf, Presidents Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan, Saparmurad Niyazov of Turkmenistan, Geidar Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan and Emomali Rakhmonov of Tajikistan, participated the summit. Presidents of Kazakhstan and Turkey are represented respectively by the Kazakhstan prime minister and Turkish minister of state for economic affairs. Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, whose government was overthrown by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban militia in 1996, is also present at the conference. The Taliban regime has been recognized by several Muslim countries, while Iran still supports Rabbani. The ECO was founded by Iran, Turkey and Pakistan in 1985. It was subsequently joined by Afghanistan, and the Central Asian and Caucasian republics of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan joined the group following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. |
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