IRNA � Foreign Minister of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif strongly believes that Pakistan as the new chairmanship of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) would take concrete steps to enable the organization to achieve its goals and for this Iran will always support Pakistan.

He made the remarks in an exclusive interview with IRNA on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers in Islamabad.

�Let me assure the new ECO chairmanship, Pakistan, of the full support of Iran in achieving its goals to make the ECO more effective and implementation of new ECO vision� he said.

Zarif went on to say that the ECO provides a good platform to enhance economic cooperation among the member states.

He hoped that Pakistan as a founding member of the ECO would play more energetic and active role for the betterment of the organization.

Expressing his views on the participation of President Hassan Rouhani in the 13th ECO heads of state summit, he said the visit would also help further enhance Iran-Pakistan bilateral ties.

The foreign minister, touching upon the commonalities between Iran and Pakistan, said that both countries enjoy strong brotherly relationship.

He added that Iran and Pakistan are cooperating with each other against terrorism and extremism which is very important for both the countries.