The foreign minister, while recognizing the importance of the ECO platform, said Pakistan enjoys fraternal and brotherly relations with the ECO member countries. These relations can be further cemented with regional connectivity projects. In this regard the minister highlighted CPEC as a great example of connectivity, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.
The foreign minister, referring to the last 13th ECO Summit held in Islamabad in 2017 with the theme of "Connectivity for Regional Prosperity" underscored Pakistan's priority for energy connectivity. He referred to the fact that some countries in the ECO region are energy deficient while others are energy surplus. There is thus a greater need to initiate energy projects. He also referred to projects such as CASA-1000 and TAPI in which Pakistan is already participating.
In order to strengthen trade ties, the foreign minister supported revisiting the ECO trade agreement, which was aimed at promoting trade liberalization within the ECO region. He also supported strengthening ECO Transit Trade Framework Agreement, which would enable the region to function as a bridge between the North and the South, Europe and Asia.-PR