Islamabad (TDI): Pakistan will host regional foreign ministers this weekend for the 30th meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Council of Foreign Ministers.
The meeting will be the first major gathering of the bloc wince Pakistan assumes chairmanship of the bloc. The two-day session on November 15 and 16 will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar.
According to a media statement by the Foreign Office, the meeting will bring together foreign ministers and senior delegations from member states. Representatives of the ECO Secretariat and its specialized subsidiary bodies will also attend.
A senior officials meeting will come first, which will review the organization’s programs, assess its subsidiary agencies, and finalize the agenda and draft outcome documents for the ministers to consider.
“The Ministerial Meeting will be preceded by the Meeting of Senior Officials (SOM) of ECO Member States,” the FO statement said.
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“Pakistan’s Chairmanship will focus on strengthening regional connectivity and deepening regional integration to strengthen regional partnerships, and promote collective efforts towards greater prosperity, sustainable development, and a more integrated and resilient ECO region,” the statement added.
Pakistan chairs the council for 2026–27 under the theme “Reviving Regionalism for a Resilient ECO.” DPM/FM Dar is to inaugurate the conference, and visiting ministers are scheduled to hold separate meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is also expected to attend, and to separately call on both the Prime Minister and DPM/FM Dar.
The Foreign Office said the role gives Pakistan a chance to present itself as a regional connectivity hub, a facilitator of logistics supply chains and an agenda setter for regional trade. It added that ensuring the benefits of cooperation reach ordinary people in member countries would remain a key priority.
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Preparations have been under way for weeks as Dar chaired a preparatory meeting earlier this month and stressed stronger transport links between Central Asia and the Arabian Sea. On Friday, he spoke by phone with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister, Bakhtiyor Saidov, about the upcoming session.
Dar also chaired a review of Pakistan’s priorities for the ECO meeting and for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization heads-of-government meeting due in Islamabad in 2027.
Islamabad has hosted the bloc before; in 2017, the city held the 13th ECO Summit, which was preceded by a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers.
The outcome documents finalized at the senior-officials stage will be the first concrete indicator of what Pakistan’s chairmanship aims to deliver on trade and transport links across the region.
