Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Dr. Huseyin Avni Bicakli participated in “Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process 8th Ministerial Conference” which was held on 9 December 2019, in Istanbul. Economic Cooperation Organization attended the Conference as supporting international organization upon the invitation extended by the co-chairs, the Republic of Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The 6th ECO Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture preceded by 5th High Level Experts Meeting (HLEM) on Agriculture was held on 3-4 December 2019 in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan under the chairmanship of H.E. Mr. Inam Karimov, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

ECO Day 2019 was celebrated on 26 November 2019 at the Institute for Political and International Studies, Tehran. H.E. Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was the guest of honour of the event. Ambassadors and senior representatives of the Tehran diplomatic corps as well as high-ranking authorities from the host country attended the ceremony.

The 3rd Meeting of the ECO Heads of Meteorological Services hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Meteorological Organization (IRIMO) was held at ECO Secretariat Tehran, on 12 November, 2019. The Meeting was attended by the delegations from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran (Host), the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Turkey as well as the representatives of ECO Secretariat. ECO-RCRM also attended the meeting as a guest.

The 2nd Training Course on Drought Monitoring and Prediction in ECO Region was held at ECO Secretariat Tehran, on 12-13 November, 2019. The course was attended by the delegations from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran (Host), the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Turkey as well as the representatives of ECO Secretariat.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, H.E. Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and ECO Secretary General H.E. Dr. Hadi Soleimanpour held a press conference following the 24th Council of Ministers Meetings of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) held in Antalya on 9 November 2019.

The 24th Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers (COM) was held in the Antalya city of the Republic of Turkey on 9 November 2019. The Council of Ministers (COM) is the highest policy and decision-making body of ECO and is responsible for formulating and approval of policies, strategies, work, annual budgets, audit reports, fiscal and administrative regulations, organizational charts, etc. The 24th Council of Ministers’ Meeting was preceded by the Senior Officials’ Meeting held on 8 November 2019.

On the invitation of the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a Representative of the ECO Secretariat attended the Geneva meeting on November 7-8, 2019.

A workshop on “Cybercrimes” was held in Tehran on November 3-7, 2019, at the International Police Academy of the Islamic Republic of Iran (AIPA). The Workshop was co-organized by the ECO and the National Central Bureau (NCB) of Tehran and with the technical support AIPA. It was attended by the representatives of Afghanistan, Iran (host), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Turkey.

On the invitation of International Energy Charter, ECO Secretariat participated in the Baku International Energy Charter Forum held in Baku, Azerbaijan on 23-24 October 2019. The forum was jointly organized by the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan and the International Energy Charter on the theme of “Enabling Energy Transformation through Technology and Policy Innovations”. More than 200 participants, including Ministers, high-level officials and leading experts from Member and Observer countries, international organizations, the energy industry and academia participated in the Forum.