TEHRAN - An expert meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) commenced in the Iranian northeastern city of Mashhad on Monday.

The meeting will be followed by a foreign ministerial meeting on the next day. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will chair the Tuesday meeting when he and his ECO counterparts will explore ways to enhance economic cooperation among member countries.

ECO’s new Secretary General Asad Majeed Khan is also in Iran for the meeting. In an exclusive interview with Iran Chamber of Commerce newsroom last week, he emphasized his objective to foster trade, transport, and tourism integration across the ECO region.

He called on Iran, as the host country of the organization, to play a pivotal role in achieving these goals.

During a meeting with Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Samad Hassanzadeh, the ECO chief regretted that the $1.8 billion volume of annual exchanges between member countries remains a fraction of global trade, underscoring the urgency of more efforts to encourage further intra-ECO trade.

EF/