The ECO Secretary General, Ambassador Khusrav Noziri received the Director General of the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS), Mr. Yerlan Baidaulet on May 9, 2022. The interaction held at the ECO Secretariat was to bilaterally discuss the possible ECO-IOFS cooperation on agricultural and food security matters.
The visiting dignitary, while explaining the IOFS’s background, structure and membership, briefed the ECO Secretary General on their various activities and initiatives undertaken to promote, monitor and manage food security in the Member States. Underlining their priority to address food security issues in Afghanistan, he emphasized on the creation of an all-inclusive, integrated and sustainable structure to support food security and related issues in their domain. Moreover, he requested the Secretary General to encourage non-IOFS Member States of the ECO to join them in the greater regional and global interest, proposing an MoU to be signed for initiation and promotion of the desired collaboration between the ECO and IOFS.
Supporting the proposed ECO-IOFS partnership, the ECO Secretary General noted that the post-COVID conditions appeared to be quite discouraging for the food systems and security across the globe. He added that working for the establishment of ECO Regional Coordination Center for Food Security (ECO-RCCFS), ECO Veterinary Commission (ECO-VECO) and ECO Agricultural Biotechnology Network (ECO-ABN) was relentlessly going on, which is aimed at enhancing food security and addressing the relevant issues in the region. He agreed for developing ECO-IOFS cooperative relationship and nominated focal points to facilitate the initiative.
