26th Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers (COM)
The Council of Ministers (COM) is the highest policy and decision-making body of 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.
The Council of Ministers is responsible for decision on/approval of policies, strategies, work programmes; appointment of senior management (Secretary General and his Deputies as well as Directors); establishment of subsidiary or ad-hoc Committees; approval of annual budgets and audit reports; setting the assessed budgetary contributions of Member States; approval of fiscal and administrative rules and regulations and organizational charts, etc.
The 26th Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers (COM) was held on January 24, 2023 in Tashkent, Republic of Uzbekistan. The Honourable Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Türkiye, Turkmenistan and Republic of Uzbekistan (host) participated in the meeting. The Delegations from ECO Observers, namely; the Turkish Cypriot State and the Organization of Turkic States, as well as the ECO Secretary General along with his team also participated in the meeting. Moreover, the Presidents of ECO Cultural Institute (ECO-CI), ECO Educational Institute (ECO-EI) and ECO Trade and Development Bank (ECO-TDB), as well as representatives of D8, CICA, IDB and ADB also attended the event.
33rd Meeting of the ECO Regional Planning Council (RPC)
The Regional Planning Council (RPC) is the main technical planning body within ECO which comprises the heads of the Planning Organizations of the Member States as well as officials and experts from the national sectoral ministries and agencies. RPC convenes its annual meetings prior to the regular meeting of the Council of Ministers under the chairpersonship of the representative of the Member State holding the chairpersonship of the Council of Ministers. Meetings are normally held in the ECO Headquarters in Tehran.
The Regional Planning Council is responsible for preparation of the programmes of action for realizing the objectives of the Organization along with stocktaking of previous programmes. It may also propose to the Council of Ministers the establishment of regional institutions and ad-hoc committees in priority areas of cooperation.
Annual RPC meetings are normally structured along one plenary session as well as several parallel sectoral committees dealing with the priority sectors of the Organization. One-year programmes of work and ECO calendars of meetings are also developed by RPC meetings on the basis of the proposals made by the Secretariat and the Council of Permanent Representatives.
The 33rd Meeting of the ECO Regional Planning Council (RPC) was held on January 16-19, 2023. The event organized in hybrid mode was chaired by the Republic of Azerbaijan as the ECO Chair for 2023. Within the framework of RPC, the relevant sectoral committees met to discuss and consider their specific areas for making appropriate recommendations to the 33rd Meeting of RPC regarding the ECO Work Programme and Calendar of Events for 2023.
