ISLAMABAD * – Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says Pakistanis upgrading its rail and infrastructure to facilitate smooth flow of goodswith its neighbors.*

Pakistan Foreign Ministry statement said that the Minister made the remarksduring the 25th Informal Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of theEconomic Cooperation Organization held on the sidelines of theseventy-third session of the UNGA in New York.

“He further added that the Istanbul-Tehran-Istanbul corridor and thePakistan-Iran-Turkmenistan rail link were being made functional,” thestatement said.

Recognizing the importance of the ECO platform, he said Pakistan enjoysfraternal and brotherly relations with ECO member countries.

“These relations can be further strengthened with regional connectivityprojects. In this regard the Minister highlighted CPEC as a great exampleof connectivity,” the statement said.

The Foreign Minister, referring to the last 13th ECO Summit held inIslamabad in 2017 with the theme of “Connectivity for Regional Prosperity”underscored Pakistan’s priority for energy connectivity.

“He referred to the fact that some countries in the ECO region were energydeficient while others were energy surplus. There was thus a greater needto initiate energy projects,” it added.

The statement said Mr Qureshi also referred to energy projects in whichPakistan was already participating.In order to strengthen trade ties. The Foreign Minister supportedrevisiting the ECO trade agreement, which was aimed at promoting tradeliberalization within the ECO region.

“He also supported strengthening ECO Transit Trade Framework Agreement,which would enable the region to function as a bridge between the North andthe South, Europe and Asia,” the statement added.

Foreign Minister Qureshi informed the meeting that out of Pakistan’s pledgeof US$ 5 million to the ECO fund for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, anamount of US$ 2 million had already been paid to the ECO.