Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi (R) and ECO Secretary General Khusrav Noziri meet in Tehran on November 23, 2021. (Photo by president.ir)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) enjoy great capacities that can bring about economic prosperity in the region, calling for efforts to remove the stumbling blocks to closer ties within the Asian politico-economic bloc.

In a meeting with ECO Secretary General Khusrav Noziri in Tehran on Tuesday, Raeisi said Iran supported the enhancement of the organization’s activities and attached special importance to cooperation among regional countries.

The Iranian president stressed the importance of identifying and removing any obstacles in the way of enhancing relations among the intergovernmental body’s member countries ahead of the 15th ECO summit, which is scheduled to be held in Turkmenistan on November 28.

Any kind of obstacle and problem on the path of developing cooperation must be removed so that economic exchanges and interactions among ECO member countries will reach a higher and superior level, he added.

Each member of the ECO has a lot of economic potential in various fields, the activation of which can lead to economic prosperity in the region, the Iranian president said.

He drew attention to ECO member countries’ capacities in the fields of energy, trade, transportation, digital economy, maritime economy and tourism, saying comprehensive plans of the organization’s secretariat to activate such potentialities can lead to the region’s economic prosperity and development of ECO states.

Noziri, for his part, also outlined plans and preparations made for the ECO Summit in Turkmenistan.

In a meeting with the ECO secretary general in Tehran last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian hailed the implementation of a number of long-term and infrastructure projects by the ECO in various fields, including transportation, trade, monetary and banking sections, and expressed hope that the remaining plans would be completed during the tenure of Noziri, who took office in August.