28 February 2017•Update: 01 March 2017
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Tuesday evening to attend the 13th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit, state-run Pakistan Television said.
The live broadcast showed Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal receive Erdogan at the Noor Khan air base following a 21-gun salute. First Lady Emine Erdogan also accompanied the president.
The summit will open Wednesday.
Erdogan was also presented with a guard of honor by a contingent from the Pakistani armed forces. He is due to meet heads of states and representatives from ECO member states on the sidelines of the summit.
He later met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan separately.
Leaders from Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are attending the summit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria told Anadolu Agency.
The ECO was established in 1985 by Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan. It succeeded the Regional Cooperation for Development, which was founded in 1964 to promote cooperation among member states.
In 1992, the organization had welcomed seven new members: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.
The Treaty of Izmir, signed in 1977 and subsequently amended in 1996, was the group’s legal foundation.
Following Erdogan's arrival, the ECO Council of Ministers issued a statement on the adoption of ECO Vision 2025, which will serve as a guideline for the organization’s medium-term strategy.
