Khankendi:
A summit of seven leaders in the West and Central Asia has agreed to liberalize trade, to attract more foreign investments and to strengthen cooperation in green energy to strengthen regional economic integration.
The grouping of the organization of economic cooperation has also agreed to improve the connectivity of transport and to restore the post-conflict fields of the region as part of a long-term development strategy until 2035, the organization announced.
The Summit, Held Under the Theme “A New Vision for the Eco for A Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Future,” was waited by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Azerbaijani Counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Uzbekistan’s Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov, Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The roadmap is based on ECO 2025, a previous strategy emphasizing integration, trade and regional transport.
Azerbaijani presidential aid for foreign policy, Hikmet Hajiyev, told Reuters that the ECO 2035 strategy extends its scope to include cooperation in green energy, digitization and social inclusion.
Hajiyev said Azerbaijan planned to establish a regional green energy center and a combined transport-energy center in the new framework, although investment figures are not yet finalized.
In an address, Aliyev highlighted the emergence of Azerbaijan as a regional energy and investment center, noting that $ 350 billion has been invested in the country’s economy in the past two decades.
The meeting was held in the capital of the old enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2023, Azerbaijan took over the entire enclave, where ethnic Armenians had benefited from de facto independence for decades.
Armenia and Azerbaijan supported a peace treaty, but the tensions between the two neighbors remain high.
