Tehran, December 23: Iran’s president has met with the Turkish prime minister in Istanbul on the sidelines of a regional summit which will focus on economic development.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed bilateral ties as well as regional and international developments.
President Ahmadinejad is arrived in Istanbul on Wednesday to attend the 11th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
During the one-hour-long meeting the two sides “stressed necessity for expansion of the relations and coordination in all fields,” IRNA reported.
Both leaders said that boosting ties between the Iran and Turkey is “in favor of interests of the two nations as well as peace and security of the region and the world.”
Prior to the summit on Thursday, economic experts from the 10-nation organization attended a meeting on Dec. 20-21. ECO foreign ministers were meeting Wednesday in the Turkish tourist hub.
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey with the aim of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among member states.
The organization was expanded in 1992 to include seven new members, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
ECO members intend to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union.
The ECO secretariat and cultural department are located in Tehran while its economic bureau is in Turkey and its scientific bureau in Pakistan.
——–Agencies