11th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization

Mavi Boncuk |Boosting intraregional trade and prioritizing energy, transportation and finance among member countries were the key issues discussed at the 11th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, held in Istanbul’s Çırağan Palace.

“Other ECO members expressed their desire to be partners of the ECO Commerce and Development Bank, established in 2008 by Turkey, Iran and Pakistan to better finance projects in the ECO framework,” Turkish president Abdullah Gül said in a press conference Thursday.

Gül preferred not to comment on whether the Turkey-Brazil-Iran nuclear-swap deal will be on the table in the coming talks between the P5+1 countries – the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany – and Iran on the latter’s nuclear program. The talks will be hosted in Istanbul in January 2011. He said, however, “a diplomatic solution to the issue will be positive not only for Iran, but for Turkey as well.”

Asked whether he discussed the Kurdish issue with his Iraqi colleague, President Jalal Talabani, who participated in the summit as a guest, Gül said Turkey solved its own internal issues by itself, but that the two leaders had discussed how to deactivate terrorist groups active across the border in Iraq.

Iraq officially asked during the summit to become member of ECO, something Gül said “will help us to foster economic cooperation in the region even more.”