His Excellency Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov,
President of Turkmenistan,
Distinguished Heads of State,
Secretary-General ECO, His Excellency Ambassador Khusrav Noziri,
Excellencies, and Gentlemen,
Assalam-o-Alaikum!
Let me begin by congratulating my friend, President Berdimuhamedov, for assuming Chairmanship of the 15th ECO Summit. I am sure that under his wise guidance, we will be able to successfully realize the objectives of this ECO Summit.
2. I also thank my brother, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Secretary-General Noziri for successfully organizing all events of the 14th Summit during challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Chairman,
3. Throughout history, trade and economic exchanges and interaction have propelled production, growth and prosperity. This historical process of economic integration will continue to accelerate, especially with the advent of the digital age. To stay competitive, national and regional economies will have to move towards greater physical and virtual integration.
4. Such integration is an imperative for the ECO region. The theme you have chosen for this Summit -- “Into the Future Together” -- is thus most apt and timely.
5. The ECO region has all the elements needed for economic integration and rapid economic growth: rich resources, enterprising people, geographical contiguity, and a common culture and heritage. Yet, for historical reasons, the ECO is among the least integrated regions in terms of trade, investment, finance, infrastructure, regional value chains, labour mobility and social integration. The intra-regional trade among ECO members is only 8 percent of their total trade. Unlocking the potential for regional integration will provide significant impetus to growth and development in all ECO Member States.
6. We must ensure implementation of the objectives agreed in the ECO Vision 2025, and the Islamabad Declaration, adopted at our 13th Summit including: a free or preferential trade arrangement; strengthening of regional institutions such as the ECO Trade and Development Bank (ETDB) and operationalization of the ECO Reinsurance Company (ERC).
7. However, the key to economic integration is connectivity, both virtual and physical. We should strongly advance the transport corridors the ECO has planned under the Transit Transport Framework Agreement (TTFA). I welcome the operationalization of the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) road corridor.
8. The key to connectivity is peace in Afghanistan which we have all mentioned today. Today, after 40 years, war has ended in Afghanistan. But a humanitarian crisis and the specter of economic collapse loom large over its people. The increasingly deepening liquidity crisis threatens a financial and banking collapse, with serious social and security implications. We must all join in preventing such a disaster, which could revive chaos and conflict and the threat from terrorism in Afghanistan. This could also lead to exodus of refugees from Afghanistan. For four decades, Pakistan has hosted nearly 4 million Afghan refugees. Besides urgent humanitarian assistance, we must render help to the Afghan people in the key sectors of health and education. Frozen assets must be released to help alleviate the sufferings of the Afghan people. We must together promote economic stability and sustainability of Afghanistan as well as its early integration into the ECO and the international community.
9. We have all witnessed the negative impact of unilateral coercive sanctions in our region. Freezing of assets and banking restrictions worsen the human suffering and entail serious implications for regional peace, security and prosperity.
10. The restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan will also enable the early implementation of our agreed infrastructure and integration projects: the TAPI gas pipeline; the CASA 1000 electricity grid from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan; and construction of the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway line. In the absence of peace, there is a real danger of mass exodus of refugees.
Mr. Chairman,
11. All ECO economies have suffered severely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The developing countries, including some ECO Members, have suffered disproportionately, with double-digit economic contraction. Pakistan has been, by Allah’s Grace, relatively fortunate. Our strategy of ‘smart lockdowns’, strategy of compassion, generous social protection, and strategic economic stimulus have saved lives and livelihoods and restricted the damage to our economy.
12. The COVID-related breakdown of supply chains has disrupted international trade and has triggered the global rise in commodity prices and inflation, upto 40 percent in some countries. Our consumers have had to face higher prices. The government is providing a massive package of targeted support to cushion the impact of inflation on the vulnerable sections of our population.
13. In part, the global inflation in prices has been generated by the $ 27 trillion fiscal stimulus injected by the rich countries to revive their economies. Unfortunately, the developing countries have not been able to secure even a small fraction of the $4.3 trillion they need to recover from the COVID crisis.
14. The ECO should join other developing countries in promoting a common development agenda to return to the path of sustained and sustainable growth. As the next Chair of the Group of 77 and China, Pakistan will propose such a development agenda, including debt restructuring, redistribution of the 650 billion new SDRs to developing countries, larger concessional financing, mobilization of the $100 billion in annual climate finance by the developed countries, ending the billions in illicit financial flows from the developing countries and the return of their stolen assets, and the creation of an equitable and open trading system and a fair international tax regime.
Mr. Chairman,
15. The ECO Member States are all Islamic countries and members of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC). We look forward to your participation in the next OIC Foreign Ministers Conference in Islamabad on 23 March next year – when Pakistan will celebrate 75 years of its independence.
16. The ECO must also contribute to realizing our critical objectives. We must all work to reverse the rising tide of Islamophobia which is rising and anti-Muslim hate in Europe, North America and South Asia.
17. I would like to take this opportunity to again congratulate President Aliyev on the recovery of Azerbaijan’s territories from foreign occupation. Pakistan continues to rely on fraternal ECO and Islamic countries to support the exercise of the right to self-determination by the people of Jammu & Kashmir, they are in misery reeling under India’s illegal occupation and facing unspeakable oppression.
18. I wish all success to Turkmenistan’s Chairmanship of the ECO this year. Pakistan looks forward equally to Uzbekistan as the next ECO Chair. We are confident that under Uzbekistan’s stewardship, ECO will continue its progress and emerge as a vital economic and political entity in the heart of Asia.
I thank you.
