SAEDNEWS: Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Reza Salehi Amiri has hailed the growing cooperation among members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in different fields, saying Iran is ready to play a pivotal role in this process.
Salehi Amiri reflected on the importance of redefining regional partnership capacities on the sidelines of a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the ECO foundation on Monday evening.
Stating that ECO member countries are entering a new stage of cultural, tourism and economic partnership, the minister expressed Iran’s readiness to steer these interactions. “Today, more than ever, there is an opportunity to create new capacities in the fields of cultural and tourism,” he stressed.
He also underscored the need for ECO members to review their existing capacities to activate them in a targeted manner.
Referring to his “fruitful” meetings with the bloc members this year and President Masoud Pezeshkian’s emphasis on the importance of expanding regional integration, Salehi Ameri said the approach of the current administration is to pursue “cooperation-oriented diplomacy.”
He called “regional cohesion” a prerequisite for cooperation, adding that ECO can become a powerful center in the economic, cultural, and tourism fields, given convergence, a common narrative, and coherence in decision-making. “ECO can be a successful model of multidimensional cooperation in the world,” he added.
He concluded by urging member states to rely on shared historical and cultural assets to turn the bloc into an axis of sustainable synergy.
