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Karabakh Summit: Regional powers adopt economic integration strategy

Seven leaders from west and central Asia met on Friday and agreed to promote trade liberalisation, increase foreign investment and cooperation in green energy as a way to enhance regional economic integration.

As part of its long-term strategy for development up to 2035 the Economic Cooperation Organization meeting also agreed to enhance transport connectivity in the region and restore areas that were affected by conflict.

The summit was held under the theme of "A New Vision for ECO for a Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Future." Participants included the Turkish President Tayyip Erdoan, his Azerbaijani colleague Ilham Aliyev as well as Shavkat Miziyoyev from Uzbekistan, Masoud Peshkian from Iran, Sadyr Japarow, Emomali Ramon in Tajikistan, and Pakistani PM Shahbaz Sharif

The roadmap builds upon ECO 2025 a previous strategy that focused on regional integration, trade, and transport. Hikmet Hajiyev, Azerbaijan's presidential aide in charge of foreign policy, said that the ECO 2035 plan expands on ECO 2025 to include digitalization, social inclusion, and green energy.

Hajiyev stated that Azerbaijan intends to establish a regional centre for green energy and a transport-energy hub as part of the new framework. However, investment figures are yet to be finalised.

Aliyev, in a speech, highlighted Azerbaijan as a regional hub for energy and investments, noting that $350 billion was invested in the economy of the country in the last two decades.

The meeting took place in the capital city of the former Nagorno Karabakh enclave. Azerbaijan recaptured the entire enclave in 2023.

Although both Armenia and Azerbaijan backed the peace treaty between their two neighbours, tensions still remain.

Erdogan expressed his hope that Khankendi could in the future become a "centre for peace and development in South Caucasus."

The ECO-2035 strategy will be formally adopted by the Council of Foreign Ministers of the organization in Kazakhstan, this November. (Reporting and editing by William Maclean, Nailia Bagirova)

(source: Reuters)