NEW YORK ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) Secretary General Abdorrahim Govahi, addressing the UN Millennium Summit here on Friday, said that the ECO as a regional economic forum fully supports the idea of "dialog among civilizations".
Elaborating on the performance of the ECO in recent years, Govahi said that his 10-member organization, in line with many UN organs and programs, has played a significant role in the promotion of all-out regional cooperation among member states.
In addition to its cooperation with the United Nations, the ECO has an observer status in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and cooperates with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), European Union (EU), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the secretary general added.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, addressing the 53rd annual session of the General Assembly in September 1998, put forward the idea of naming the year 2001 as a year of "dialog among civilizations," later adopted unanimously by the United Nations.
ECO is a regional economic forum which groups Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The first three are founding members of the organization originally known as the Regional Cooperation Development (RCD), which later changed its name to the current ECO.
(IRNA)