Prior to the summit, hosted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the Khankendi Congress Center, leaders gathered for a family photo. The ECO is the continuation of the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) platform, established in 1964 in Istanbul by the heads of state and government of Türkiye, Iran, and Pakistan to enhance regional economic cooperation. The organization suspended its activities following the 1979 revolution in Iran.
As economic relations among the three founding countries resumed in the early 1980s, it was decided to continue cooperation under a new name but based on the legal framework of the RCD. Thus, the ECO was formally established in 1985.
The ECO's members include Türkiye, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) holding observer status. The organization's heads of state summits are held every two years.
In addition to periodic summits and ministerial meetings in foreign affairs, the ECO regularly organizes sector-specific meetings in areas such as trade, transport, agriculture, energy, environment, health, industry, finance, and the economy, enabling the implementation of cooperation projects and policy decisions.
