BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 24. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov delivers a national statement under Azerbaijan’s 2023 Chairmanship at the 26th meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, TurkicWorld reports citing the Twitter account of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 26th meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is being held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

During the meeting, Bayramov made a statement outlining the priorities and plans of Azerbaijan within the ECO Chairmanship for 2023.

He emphasized that Azerbaijan's chairmanship, dedicated to the ‘Green Transition and Interconnections’ topic, will be important for promoting the strategy and programs of the organization, as well as the views of ‘ECO-2025’.

The minister noted that during the chairmanship, a number of high-level meetings will be held in the field of economy, energy, transport, customs, border crossings, justice, tourism and healthcare in 2023.

Participants of the event were informed about the importance of transport routes through Central Asia and the South Caucasus, in particular, about the work done to develop regional transport and transit corridors in Azerbaijan.

Besides, it was noted that in order to promote cooperation in these areas, trilateral platforms were created jointly with Türkiye, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

During his speech, the minister stressed the importance of the Baku Declaration within the framework of the Azerbaijan-Türkiye-Kazakhstan trilateral platform and related decisions on the development of the Trans-Caspian Middle East-West Corridor.

Bayramov also stressed the importance of the measures taken to create a transport corridor from the Eastern Zangazur Economic Region of Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

He emphasized that the Zangazur corridor will be of particular importance for the development of cooperation between all countries of the region.

Furthermore, detailed information was given on the work carried out by Azerbaijan in the field of ensuring energy security, and development of green energy resources of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between our country and the European Union in July last year, as well as on the project of laying an electric cable between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary across the Black Sea, and it was stated that this project will further expand cooperation in the region.

It was noted that within the Chairmanship, steps will be taken to operate the Clean Energy Center of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as well as the ECO Economic Research Center in Baku. It was also noted that the candidacy of Shusha will be nominated as the ECO tourist capital in 2026.

During his speech, Bayramov also spoke about the restoration work, carried out by Azerbaijan in the liberated territories in the post-conflict period [after the 2020 second Karabakh war], and informed in detail about the measures taken to create a green energy zone and free economic zones in those territories.

Statements were then made by the Secretary-General of the ECO and the foreign ministers of other member states.

During the meeting of the Council of Ministers, a number of documents on the activities of the ECO were adopted. The Tashkent Communiqué, adopted as the final document of the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the ECO member countries, supported the measures to establish transport and communication links between the Eastern Zangazur economic region of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and the work carried out within the trilateral platforms implemented jointly with Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Within the framework of the communiqué, support was also expressed for the settlement of interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Confidence was expressed that this will contribute to the establishment of good neighborly relations in the region, sustainable peace and economic progress.

Within the framework of Bayramov's visit, a number of bilateral meetings are planned.

The 26th meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is being held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The Council of Ministers (COM) is the highest policy and decision-making body of the ECO. It comprises the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States who meet in regular, informal and extraordinary sessions. The Council of Ministers may if deemed necessary, propose the convening of meetings of other Ministers in the formulation of plans and projects in their respective fields through sectoral or joint ministerial meetings.