17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization gets underway in Khankendi, President Ilham Aliyev addressed the Summit -VIDEO -UPDATED-3-PHOTO

On July 4, the 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) commenced in the city of Khankendi, APA reports.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev welcomed the heads of state and government, as well as the heads of delegations participating in the Summit.

The event participants posed for a family photo.

President Ilham Aliyev addressed the Summit.

Speech by President Ilham Aliyev

- Distinguished Heads of State and Government,

Dear Summit participants,

Welcome to Khankendi - to the ancient Azerbaijani land of Karabakh, for the participation at the 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

I express my gratitude to Kazakhstan for the successful chairmanship of the ECO.

Azerbaijan is hosting the ECO Summit for the third time. The previous two summits of 2006 and 2012 were held in the capital city of Baku.

Organization of today’s Summit in Karabakh, in Khankendi, holds particular symbolism. Several significant international events have already been held in our lands liberated from Armenia’s occupation. I would like to mention the ECO Council of Ministers held in Shusha in 2023, the first informal Summit of the Organization of Turkic States held in 2024, and the Trilateral Summit of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Pakistan held in Lachin this May.

Today, the ECO Summit is taking place in Khankendi, at the newly built Congress Center.

At present, large-scale reconstruction and development efforts are underway throughout the entire liberated Karabakh and East Zangezur regions.

Armenia had held nearly 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory under occupation for almost 30 years, conducting ethnic cleansing and expelling over one million of our fellow Azerbaijanis from their native lands.

The state of Azerbaijan and its people have never come to terms with the occupation. On numerous occasions, we made it clear to Armenia and the states supporting it that if Armenia failed to withdraw voluntarily from our occupied territories, we would resort to military force to restore our territorial integrity. Unfortunately, Armenia and its patrons did not take our warnings seriously - and eventually came to regret it.

In the course of a 44-day Patriotic War of 2020, Azerbaijan had crushed Armenia on the battlefield, and liberated over 300 cities and villages. Armenia had to sign the capitulation act on 10 November 2020.

During the occupation, Armenia razed our cities and villages to the ground, along with our cultural and religious sites. Armenia had demolished 65 of the 67 mosques; the remaining two were severely damaged and used as barns for cows and pigs. This was a clear act of disrespect and insult toward the Islamic faith and Muslims around the world.

Cemeteries, too, were vandalized - destroyed, and tombstones were looted and taken to Armenia.

A commission composed of state agencies, with the involvement of foreign experts and drawing on international experience, estimated that the damage caused to Azerbaijan as a result of the occupation amounted to nearly $150 billion.

Armenia planted more than one million mines on our territory. Since the Patriotic War, nearly 400 of our citizens have been killed or seriously injured by mine explosions.

Today, in the lands devastated by Armenia, new cities and villages are being built. The “Great Return” program is underway. So far, we have facilitated the return of former internally displaced persons to 16 cities and villages. More than 50,000 people now live, work, and study in the liberated territories.

Ensuring the rights of Azerbaijanis deported from Armenia is also a matter of significant importance. We highly appreciate a resolution affirming the right of return of Azerbaijanis forcibly displaced from Armenia, adopted by the unanimous decision of all 57 members at the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, last month.

The Istanbul Declaration, adopted alongside the resolution during the Council of Foreign Ministers session, reaffirms the right of Azerbaijanis displaced from present-day Armenia to return, and condemns Armenia's refusal to engage in dialogue with the Western Azerbaijan Community.

The efforts to ensure the peaceful return of the Western Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands in Armenia will continue.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Azerbaijan has always been actively involved in the ECO’s activity. Our relations with the ECO member states have been developing successfully.

Last year, COP29 conference was held for the first time ever within the ECO region. This conference brought together participants from 197 countries, welcomed 70 heads of state and government, and recorded a total of 77,000 registrations.

Conference’s primary achievements included increasing the financial commitment from $100 billion to $300 billion, to support the developing nations, operationalizing Loss and Damage Fund, and reaching consensus on carbon markets.

This year, for the first time, ECO Week is being held at Azerbaijan’s initiative. The ECO Business Forum in Shusha, the Youth Forum in Aghdam, and the Women’s Forum in Lachin have taken place. The representatives who took part in the Forums will report to the Summit on their outcomes today.

Work is underway to ensure the launch of ECO’s Research Centre and Clean Energy Centre to be hosted by Azerbaijan.

I am grateful for the declaration of the city of Shusha as the ECO Tourism Capital for 2026.

The issues to be discussed today are of particular importance for deepening economic cooperation. Azerbaijan enjoys a very favorable investment climate. Over the past 20 years, approximately $350 billion has been invested in Azerbaijan’s economy, with foreign investments accounting for half of that amount.

Today, Azerbaijan ensures the energy security of several countries and exports natural gas to 12 countries through various pipelines. Based on this indicator, we hold top positions worldwide.

East-West and North-South transportation corridors run across Azerbaijan and most ECO member states use these corridors.

Dear friends,

I am confident that our today’s discussions will be fruitful and contribute positively to the further development of relations between our countries.

Thank you.

X X X

Then, the Chairman of the 16th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, delivered a speech.

Speech by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev

- Distinguished heads of delegations!

It is a great pleasure to meet with you in the ancient land of Karabakh, in the beautiful city of Khankendi, which embodies a unique historical and cultural heritage. As true brothers, we are delighted to witness this region becoming a place of peace and development. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to His Excellency, Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, for the high-level organization of the Economic Cooperation Organization’s summit on this land and warm hospitality.

Since our historic meeting in Tashkent, significant progress has been made in strengthening the Organization’s institutional capacity and establishing cooperation in new areas. I would like to take this opportunity to underline the effective chairmanship of the Republic of Kazakhstan in our Organization.

We are also pleased by the fact that after a long break the delegation of the Interim Government of Afghanistan is taking part in our summit. Indeed, we consider neighboring Afghanistan as an integral part of our Organization’s space, important member of broad economic cooperation and regional transport connectivity processes, and we widely support this.

Dear participants of the meeting!

Our summit is taking place amid difficult circumstances, when the world community is going through a critical stage. This is particularly evident given that most conflicts and disputes are occurring within the very space of our Organization. The events that have occurred in South Asia and the Middle East in recent months have caused deep concern for all of us. The erosion of international law and global security institutions is further weakening the room for dialogue and cooperation, paving the way for the use of force and violence. In particular, the military actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a member of our Organization, created the danger of dragging the entire region into war and triggering a large-scale environmental catastrophe. We therefore support the ceasefire agreement reached between Iran and Israel. We consider this decision as an important step towards reducing the tension in the region and restoring the stability. We believe that this agreement will provide a solid foundation for resolving all issues through diplomatic and constructive negotiations. Given that the non-proliferation and non-use of weapons of mass destruction are becoming one of the most pressing international security issues, we once again call on the global community to expand the geography of the nuclear-weapon-free zones. It must be noted that endurable peace and stability in the Middle East cannot be achieved without a fair and just resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. We call for the end of military actions in the Gaza Strip, the removal of all obstacles to providing humanitarian assistance to those suffering from hunger and inhumane conditions, and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine in accordance with the UN resolutions.

Distinguished participants of the summit!

The foundation of any peace and development is based, first and foremost, on economic cooperation. Therefore, our partnership within the Organization is not only natural, but also of great strategic importance. In accordance with the agenda of the meeting, I would like to draw your attention to a number of issues. First of all, we need to clearly define the medium and long-term development priorities of our Organization. To this end, it is necessary to adopt the concept of “Strategic Goals of Economic Cooperation – 2035”. Along with the traditional areas, such as trade, investment, transport, energy, industry, agriculture, ecology, tourism and education, we should also pay a special attention to strengthening cooperation in innovation, artificial intelligence and digital technologies. Simplifying trade in goods and services, gradually eliminating technical and non-tariff barriers, and developing e-commerce are particularly relevant. I would also like to highlight that the current volume of our mutual trade remains low. In 2024, this figure stood at $95 billion, accounting for 10% of our countries’ total trade turnover. We propose holding a meeting of our trade ministers in Tashkent this year to discuss the strategic issues in this area and conclude Agreement on Trade Facilitation. Besides, it is very important to create a system of “Green Corridors” for the rapid data sharing on agricultural trade and unrestricted supply of goods. We put forward an initiative to adopt a long-term “Eco-Invest” Program to take our investment cooperation to a new level, and make the investment climate more transparent and attractive. The main goal of this program is to captivate private investors, banks, and international financial institutions to promising projects in our region. There is another priority area. The recent geopolitical events have once again demonstrated the risks of disruption of the supply chains, highlighting the strategic importance of establishing alternative transport corridors. The launch of the China – Kyrgyzstan – Uzbekistan railway project last year was a significant event. In the future, this railway will be connected with the Trans-Afghan corridor, effectively integrating transit networks across our vast region. We believe that it is time to implement the initiative to create a Digital Transport and Customs Office in order to systematically organize the digitalization of the transport and logistics sector, and we support intensifying negotiations at the expert level.

Our important tasks also include launching new air routes in the region, implementing innovative cooperation between airlines, and developing integrated marketing strategies between the tourism and aviation sectors. We propose organizing the National Airlines Forum in Samarkand to discuss these issues. We have enough potential to double tourist arrivals. Developing a Roadmap for the Expansion of Tourism Services within the Organization will help to achieve this goal.

I would also like to draw your attention to another important issue. It is essential that our countries coordinate and combine their efforts on the global climate agenda. We firmly support the full implementation of commitments and agreements reached at the successfully held COP29 Global Climate Summit in Baku. We propose developing a Transboundary “Green Initiative” within the Organization aimed at planting forests in desert areas and establishing recreational zones.

Distinguished heads of delegations!

We appreciate the High-Level Committee’s efforts to enhance the activity of our Organization. I believe you will support the idea of assigning the Committee to develop by the next summit proposals and recommendations to reform and boost the Organization’s functions. These reforms will undoubtedly elevate our collaboration to a new level, strengthen the Organization’s international prestige and influence, and improve its work to meet modern requirements.

I am convinced that today’s summit will give a new impetus to achieve our commitments and plans in elevating multifaceted and practical cooperation to a new level.

Thank you for your attention!

X X X

The event continued with other speeches.

X X X

President Ilham Aliyev concluded the Summit, saying:

- Dear friends,

The 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) comes to an end.

I express my gratitude to each of you for your participation, your ideas, and your proposals.

The Khankendi Summit has become yet another clear example of our friendship.

I am confident that the ideas and proposals voiced here will be summarized by the Secretariat and taken into account in ECO’s future activities, including the preparation of the development document for 2026–2035.

I would like to thank the ECO Secretary General, Mr. Khusrav Noziri, and the Secretariat for their support in organizing the Summit, as well as the Business Forum, the Youth Forum, and the Women’s Forum.

Finally, I would like to thank the participants and speakers of the forums who contributed to ECO Week.

Thus, the Summit is hereby declared closed. Once again, I express my sincere gratitude to each of you. Thank you.

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