PM Kakar arrives in Tashkent to attend two-day ECO Summit

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Wednesday arrived at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on a two-day visit to attend the two-day 16th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Summit. Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Nigmatovich Aripov warmly welcomed PM Kakar as he arrived at the Tashkent airport along with his delegation comprising Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and Commerce Minister Gohar Ejaz. At the summit, the prime minister will reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to ECO Vision 2025 and the promotion of regional cooperation in the areas of trade, transport, connectivity, energy, tourism and economic growth and productivity. On the sidelines of the summit, he will also engage in bilateral discussions with the leadership of Uzbekistan and other participating leaders. Also read Saudi Arabia convenes 'extraordinary' OIC summit on Gaza ECO Vision 2025 Earlier, Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani stressed Pakistan's determination to achieve the ECO Vision 2025 as a member state to promote intra-regional trade. In a statement at the 27th ECO Council of Ministers meeting held at Shusha, Azerbaijan, he said that ECO intra-regional trade was less than eight percent of the region’s aggregate trade and was in stark contrast to other regional groupings such as the European Union, where intra-regional trade stood above 70 percent. He recalled the ‘ECO Vision 2025’ adopted during the 13th ECO Summit in Islamabad, which aptly provided them with a roadmap.