On the sidelines of the 23rd Economic Cooperation Organizations (ECO) Council of Ministers Meeting a bilateral meeting between H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon, President of the Republic of Tajikistan and H.E. Mr. Halil İbrahim Akça, ECO Secretary General was held on 16 April 2018 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

A bilateral meeting between H.E. Mr. Halil Ibrahim Akca, ECO Secretary General and H.E. Mr. Rashid Meredov, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan was held on 17 April 2017 on the margins of the 23rd ECO Council of Ministers Meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

A bilateral meeting between H.E. Secretary General Halil Ibrahim Akca and H.E. Kudret Ozarsay, the Honorable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkish Cypriot State, was held on 17 April 2018 on the margins of the 23rd ECO Council of Ministers Meeting, in Dushanbe.

A bilateral meeting between H.E. Mr. Halil Ibrahim Akca and H.E. Mr Abdujabar. Abduvakhitov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan was held on 17 April 2017 on the margins of the 23rd ECO Council of Ministers Meeting. Dr. Hadi Soleimanpour, ECO Deputy Secretary General, also attended the meeting.

The 23rd Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) was held on 16-17 April 2018 at Dushanbe-Republic of Tajikistan.

(Baku, Azerbaijan) The Secretariat of the Economic Cooperation Organization has participated in the Non- Aligned Movement Mid-Term Ministerial Conference on April 5-6, 2018, in Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku. The meeting held under the theme of “promoting international peace and security for sustainable development,” was attended by 800 representatives from 120 member states as well as 10 international bodies and 17 countries as observers.

The 16th General Assembly and 24th Executive Committee Meetings of the ECO-Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ECO-CCI), hosted by the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) was held on 3-5 March, 2018 in Tehran. Present at the session were Iran’s Transport Minister, Abbas Akhoundi, ECO–CCI President, Ghazanfar Bilour, ECO Secretary General, Hilal Ibrahim Akca, Head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce Gholamhossein Shafei, Vice President of Turkey’s Union of Chamber and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), Mr. Selçuk Öztürk.

The First Meeting of the ECO Reinsurance Company (ERC) was held in on 26th February 2018 in Karachi. The meeting to determine the modalities for the operationalization of the Company was attended by the Board of Directors (BoD) and officials from the Consulate Generals of Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Turkey in Karachi.

The solemn inauguration ceremony was held on 23 February 2018 in Serhetabat, Turkmenistan on the occasion of launching the new construction phase of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline (TAPI), Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan power transmission (TAP-500), as well as fiber-optic communication lines, and the new railroad along the route Serhetabat (Turkmenistan) – Turgundi (Afghanistan).

The First Technical Meeting on Establishment and Operation of ECO Smuggling and Customs Offences Data Bank was held on 20 February 2018 in Ankara. The meeting brought together delegations from the Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Turkey, in a bid to finalize the “Draft Data Fields” and discuss issues pertaining to the Data Bank.