Unlocking Regional Prosperity: The Economic Cooperation Organization’s Vital Role

The ECO is an important platform for constructive dialogue among member states and has set the direction of development for the member states. The ECO has significant potential for expanding partnerships, particularly in vital issues including security, and there is a big need for cooperation among member states in energy.

• The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is the successor of RCD (Regional Cooperation for Development), formed in 1964 and re-established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey to enhance economic, trade, and tourism cooperation.
• ECO expanded in 1992 to include seven new members after the collapse of the USSR, with a focus on developing infrastructure and institutions for sustainable development in the region.
• ECO serves as a vital platform for dialogue among member states, emphasizing connectivity for regional prosperity, cooperation in energy, infrastructure development, and mutual economic growth.

The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is the successor organization of RCD (Regional Cooperation for Development), which was formed in 1964 leveraging the status of being in the American bloc. It was re-formed in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey under a mutual agreement to further enhance cooperation in the economic, trade, and tourism sectors due to border connectivity. The ECO was expanded in 1992 after the collapse of the USSR to include seven new members: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The main objective of the ECO was to develop the necessary infrastructure and institutions among the member states to make full use of the available resources in the region and provide sustainable development. It should be kept in mind that Central Asia (formerly Turkestan) was the region of the ‘Great Game’ between the British and Imperial Russia. This British-Russian competition was significant not only because of the hydrocarbon resources but also for the struggle for influence. Elaborating on another historical fact of World War II, one of Germany’s central goals was to expand southeast into the Caucasus and Central Asia (Turkestan) to gain control of the vast farmland and natural energy resources.

In this regard, quite a few ECO summit meetings happened in which the emphasis of the summit was on Connectivity for Regional Prosperity through greater economic integration and close people-to-people contact. A common area of cooperation between ECO countries is, potentially, cooperation in energy, and the need for greater cooperation in agriculture, environment, and tourism. Turkey is implementing a number of big infrastructure projects that would link the country with neighboring countries and regions through rail, roads, sea, and air.

The ECO will make rapid progress to reap the benefits of mutual economic cooperation under the leadership of Pakistan and Turkey. The collective and joint approach of the ECO member states will make the organization a vibrant platform for mutual cooperation and bring development and prosperity to the region.

The ECO is an important platform for constructive dialogue among member states and has set the direction of development for the member states. The ECO has significant potential for expanding partnerships, particularly in vital issues including security, and there is a big need for cooperation among member states in energy. Turkmenistan’s energy strategy is multi-directional, and construction work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan–Pakistan-India gas pipeline has been started, and implementation of this project is being realized with the participation of ECO member states.

Azerbaijan emphasizes mutual cooperation among ECO countries in the fields of infrastructure, connectivity, and transportation for the development and progress of the region. Trade, investment, and effective use of energy resources constitute key elements of regional cooperation. ECO member states need to pay greater attention to the implementation of joint infrastructure projects to facilitate connectivity of transport and energy networks in the region, and the activities of the ECO should help promote socio-economic development, poverty reduction, and improvement in living standards in the member states.

The ECO countries also emphasized the need for developing road and sea routes through the establishment of transport corridors and expressed confidence that the implementation of the high-voltage power transmission line CASA-1000, acknowledged to be the first-ever energy project between South and Central Asian regions, would help realize the objective of shared progress.

The ECO will make rapid progress to reap the benefits of mutual economic cooperation under the leadership of Pakistan and Turkey. The collective and joint approach of the ECO member states will make the organization a vibrant platform for mutual cooperation and bring development and prosperity to the region.

Due to Pakistan’s strategic location, it provides the shortest outlet to landlocked Central Asian Republics to the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and further to the rest of the world. Pakistan acts as a bridge between South and West Asia for resources of the Middle East and South Asia. The Karakoram Highway is an ancient Silk Route between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan, and for having access to Gwadar port, this route provides the land link to Central Asian Republics through Tajikistan. Pakistani ports, which are around 1700 km away from Central Asian Republics, are the shortest route for economic links between Pakistan and Central Asian Republics.

It can boost bilateral trade in raw materials and manufactured goods. It is to be said that Pakistan has to build cultural and economic ties with Central Asian Republics, which will provide natural strategic depth to Pakistan against the hegemony of India in South Asia. Pakistan and Central Asian Republics have many things in common in their societies, like the religion of Islam, having a tribal system, architecture, art and design, and a common TUANIC background, etc. Turkestan was also named as TURAN, and northern Pakistan was part of Greater TURAN. In ancient times, the people of both regions carried out bilateral trade, and Afghanistan was used for reaching each other’s region, and Peshawar was the main city used for trade. The Hindko language of Peshawar was also used for trade dealings between Central Asia and the Sub-Continent.

The Samarkand-Multan to Lahore route was used for trading. Ports of Pakistan can give a boom to Central Asia, and future developments can lead this region as another Middle East when linked with the outside world. The Central Asian Republics will be linked with Gwadar Port through the Karakoram Highway, Turkham, and Chaman. This route will bring a lot of economic activities for Pakistan as well as for Central Asian Republics. If this proposed route and resource corridor are established, then Pakistan’s dependence on the Middle East will definitely be reduced. TAPI is also a good proposed project to utilize the energy resources of Central Asian Republics. The Gwadar Port is the first step towards fulfilling Pakistan’s ambition of becoming a Trade and Energy Corridor (TEC) for China, which will help ship Persian Gulf oil from Gwadar overland through Pakistan to China.

The RCD Highway, formally known as Highway N-25, already exists between Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, connecting Balochistan with other provinces and cities in Pakistan, and further with Iran and Turkey. It is an 813 km long highway, passing through Karachi, Bela, Khuzdar, Kalat, Quetta, and Chaman, and then continuing into Afghanistan. It then joins N-40 (National Highway 40 Quetta-Taftan International Border Circuit), which leads it via Naukundi to Road 84 in Iran, and through various Iranian Highways to Turkey and onwards into Europe. The highway also has a recent connection to Gwadar and passes through many towns in Balochistan. Efforts must be made to make it a viable project linking Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan into the Caucasus and further into Central Asia and Eurasia for connectivity reasons.

Pakistan’s strategy in the Eurasian geopolitical chessboard aims to strengthen cooperation with Iran and Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea to create a transit corridor that might boost Pakistani import-export and commercial trade. Pakistan wants to increase its influence and presence in the Caspian Sea, considering the outstanding geopolitical role that the region plays as an interconnector between Europe and Asia, a logistic hub, and an energy market. Islamabad should discuss the possibility of strengthening cooperation with Iran and Azerbaijan to pursue this strategy, and this has become even more important after strategically and tactically supporting Azerbaijan in the 44-day patriotic war for Nagorno Karabakh.

by Anees Hafiz ~ The Writer is an engineering management professional and the author of ‘Pakistan`s Defence & Nuclear Doctrine’.

This article was Published on 23th March 2024 in THE ISLAMABAD TELEGRAPH  https://theislamabadtelegraph.com/2024/03/unlocking-regional-prosperity-the-economic-cooperation-organizations-vital-role/