Flags of Iran & Turkey[/caption]Ankara, Feb 28, IRNA - An economic delegation comprising Turkish officials and experts left Ankara for Tehran on Saturday.
Delegates are set to attend the 25th Regional Planning Council meeting (RPC) of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to open in Tehran on Sunday.
The delegation is headed by the Deputy Undersecretary Deputy of Turkish Development Minister Y?lmaz Tuna.
During the five-day event, the ECO's policies, strategies and plans will be compiled based on the Treaty of Izmir and guidelines of the Council of Ministers.
The ECO was established in 1985 as a trilateral organization of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey to promote multidimensional regional cooperation with a view to creating conditions for sustained socioeconomic growth in the Member States.
Its aims and objectives as its modes of operation were identical to those of its forerunner, the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) which remained in existence from 1964 to 1979. Subsequently, the organization was restructured and revived under the present name ECO.
The Treaty of Izmir signed in 1977 as the legal framework for the RCD and later adopted as the basic Charter of ECO was modified to provide a proper legal basis to ECO's transition from RCD at the Ministerial Meeting held in Islamabad in June 1990.
Following the amendment in the Treaty of Izmir, ECO was fully launched in early 1991.
ECO comprises ten member states including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
By IRNA
