On December 23rd the 11th Summit of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) started in Chiragan Palace here.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is attending the summit.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul welcomed heads of states and governments participating in the event.
The summit was opened by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who chaired the 10th ECO summit held in March, 2009 in Tehran.
Turkey took over the ECO chairmanship from Iran.
Turkish President Abdulah Gul addressed the summit.
Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the summit.
Economic Cooperation Organization is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the member states.
In the fall of 1992, the ECO expanded to include seven new members, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Baku hosted the organization`s 9th summit in May, 2006.
The organization got a status of observation in UN in 1993 and in Organization of the Islamic Conference in 1994.

AzerTAc  

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