ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan will host foreign ministers from the Economic Cooperation Organization in Islamabad on Sunday and Monday for the 30th meeting of the regional bloc’s Council of Ministers, the Foreign Office said on Saturday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will chair the meeting. It will bring together foreign ministers and heads of delegations from the member states, along with representatives of the ECO secretariat and the organisation’s subsidiary bodies.
A meeting of senior officials will come first. It will review the organisation’s activities and programmes, assess the work of its subsidiary bodies, and finalise the agenda and the draft outcome documents that will go to the ministers.
Pakistan in the chair
Pakistan holds the ECO chairmanship for 2026–27 and has chosen “Reviving Regionalism for a Resilient ECO” as its theme. The Foreign Office said the chairmanship would focus on regional connectivity and integration, deeper partnerships, and joint work on economic prosperity and sustainable development.
It said Pakistan also wanted to position itself as a regional connectivity hub, make it easier for logistics and supply chains to run through the region, and help shape the agenda for regional trade. The aim, the statement said, was to turn regional cooperation into “tangible improvements” in the lives of people in member states.
Dar told the relevant authorities last month to make sure coordination and preparations for the meeting were complete and on time. This week he also discussed the meeting with his Uzbek counterpart.
The bloc
The ECO was set up in 1985 by Pakistan, Iran, and Türkiye, and now has ten members: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan. Its secretariat is in Tehran.
The bloc’s last summit, its 17th, was held in Khankendi, Azerbaijan, on July 3 and 4, 2025. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif led Pakistan’s delegation there and called for more trade within the region, better transport links, closer energy cooperation, and sustainable development.
The Islamabad meeting comes as Pakistan also prepares to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit next year (read more).
