Dr. Urban Rusnak, Secretary General of the International Energy Charter (IEC) Secretariat accompanied by Mr. Marat Terterov, Principal Coordinator of IEC visited the ECO Secretariat on 18th June 2018 and called on H.E. Mr. Halil Ibrahim AKأ‡A, ECO Secretary General and ECO DSG, Dr. Hadi Soleimanpour.
ECO Secretary General while warmly welcoming the IEC delegation to the Secretariat appreciated the IEC's active participation as ECO Observer in the 13th ECO Summit, 22nd Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers (COM) and 23rd COM in Islamabad in 2017 and Dushanbe in 2018, respectively. Besides, the ECO Secretary General presented an overall state of play of the ECO activities, especially on energy profile, inter alia, ongoing initiative of establishment of ECO Regional Electricity Market (ECO-REM); ECO Clean Energy Centre; ongoing regional gas pipeline and electricity projects; as well as transport corridors. While briefing he also extended great appreciation to IEC for its keen interest in ECO very important regional projects/initiatives.
Dr. Urban Rusnak briefed on key functioning, structure, programmes, polices, projects and other expanded activities of IEC around the world in the sphere of energy. He also mentioned that 8 out of 10 ECO Member States are already member parties to IEC. The IEC Secretary General emphasized on further enhancing ECO-IEC partnership and proposed boosting cooperation and collaboration within and beyond the ECO Region. He assured that IEC, in its capacity, will extend possible cooperation to ECO in capacity building, policy making, governance, regulatory framework, reforms, orientation in tariff harmonization, and so on.
ECO Deputy Secretary General while briefing emphasized on enhancing institutional linkages and cooperation between ECO and IEC in various domains of energy will act as catalyst in sharing experiences and best practices, financing, technical assistance supporting regional initiatives, jointly holding of events with active participation in each other's events.
Both sides also exchanged their overall views on regional transport corridor and energy projects concerning Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, among others, Trans-Caspian, South-East, South-West, North-South East-West, KTAI rail and road projects, TAPI, TANAP & Turkmenistan-China Gas Pipelines, ECO Regional Electricity Market projects, TAP-500 and CASA-1000.
Both sides agreed to continue coordination on optimal framework for cooperation, including continuation of involvement on ECO-REM, previous practice on organizing joint ECO-IEC events, as well as mutual participation in the relevant events. Both Secretaries General expressed their keenness to enhance coordination and cooperation between two Secretariats in the larger mutual interests.
