Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - The Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization spoke in interview about Uzbekistan’s initiatives within the framework of its chairmanship in the ECO. The Secretary-General expressed gratitude to the Uzbek side for preparing the ECO summit, which is being held for the first time in Tashkent under the motto “Together for economic stability and development. He also shared his views on the agenda of the upcoming Tashkent meeting of the leaders of the ECO states.

Khusrav Noziri noted that the meeting is historic in the sense that this summit will be held for the first time with the participation of Uzbekistan and will be held in Tashkent. In this regard, I congratulated the Head of Uzbekistan on hosting the 16th Summit. According to him, at the meeting with the Head of State they discussed the progress of preparations for the upcoming summit, as well as a fruitful exchange of views on priority areas of regional cooperation within the ECO. The organization’s priority areas are trade, investment, transport, communications, energy, minerals, environment, tourism, sustainable development, human resources, parliamentary and legal cooperation, as well as a special cooperation program for Afghanistan.

Noziri further emphasized that over the past two years, Uzbekistan has come out with many initiatives that have received widespread support in the organization. Some of the proposals are already being implemented. For example, establishing a high-level dialogue platform on environmental cooperation within the organization and holding the first meeting of this platform.

“Also, for the first time in the organization’s activities, Uzbekistan initiated the issue of assigning themes for each year of its chairmanship. In 2022, Uzbekistan also proposed the topic of strengthening relationships in the region for the first time in the history of the country’s membership in the organization. The initiative of the Head of Uzbekistan at the previous summit turned into a tradition for other participants of the organization,” he said.

Khusrav Noziri called on all interested parties to pay great attention to the issues of transport and communication, because this is an important area of our activity. We are implementing various transport and transit projects in this area, including corridors that connect the East and West of our region, North and South. Also, the territory of the organization can be used for trade between China and Europe. These issues were discussed and Uzbekistan, due to its geographical location, plays a very important role in the implementation of all these projects in the field of transport and communication.

Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization Khusrav Noziri believes that tourism is another priority area of our cooperation. In this regard, he congratulated the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the election of the city of Shakhrisabz as the tourism capital of the ECO in 2024, and we expect that within the framework of this year, relevant tourism events will be held in the city of Shakhrisabz, which will serve the development of tourism, not only in Shakhrisabz in Uzbekistan, but throughout the entire region of our organization.

Also, as part of the meeting with the President of Uzbekistan, we discussed and exchanged views on other international issues of mutual interest. “We agreed that the summit will be successful. All heads of state and government will take part in the summit, this is a very good indicator and this is an indicator of the high recognition by member countries of the role and place of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the affairs of our organization,” he explained.

“The Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway project is a corridor that passes through the territory of the member countries of the organization. These issues are on the agenda for discussion of the organization in the field of transport and communications and of course we will make efforts to implement these projects. This project, in particular the railway project from Uzbekistan to Mazar-i-Sharif, will not only contribute to the development of communication and trade and transport relations, but will also contribute to the establishment of peace and stability in the neighboring country of Afghanistan, which is a member country, but in due to existing conditions, cannot currently have full participation in the affairs of our organization,” concluded Khusrav Noziri.