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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Oct 15 2012
Iran to turn ECO into paper organization
ABDULLAH BOZKURT
The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the gathering of 10
countries -- Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- in
the Eurasia region, is rapidly becoming an empty talking shop, thanks
but no thanks to increasingly isolated Iran. Iran's unilateral efforts
to turn this organization into an anti-Western forum are hampering the
development of ECO into a credible regional economic organization. It
also complicates already existing intra-group differences within ECO.
To be frank, nothing substantial will come out of the 20th Meeting of
the Council of Ministers and the 12th Summit of Heads of
State/Government of ECO held on Oct. 15 and 16, respectively, in
Azerbaijan. The participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an
and Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu as well as other leading
dignitaries to these meetings will serve merely as a photo opportunity
for the press.
Though Iran is desperate to seize on the ECO summit to raise its
profile, battered in the region with its nuclear ambitions and its
stand on Syria, nobody expects Tehran to get anything of considerable
value out of this organization. Since the last summit held in Ä°stanbul
two years ago, the regional and global outlook for Iran has
deteriorated further with new sanctions slapped on by the UN as well
as the US and EU. Therefore, it is not surprising to see Iranians
rallying to utilize regional organizations like ECO or global ones
like the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to mitigate the effects of
sanctions.
Iran lacks the will to put anything valuable on the table in return
for increased recognition from its regional partners within ECO.
Despite the fact that ECO is headquartered in Tehran, we have not
witnessed so far a significant effort from Iranians to turn this
organization into a real hub for economic cooperation. Rather Iran has
tried to use ECO as its own propaganda machine, for which it has
raised eyebrows in a number of capitals in ECO member states.
There have been numerous proposals floated by member states for ECO
over the years, but many remain unfulfilled. For instance, the ECO
Trade Agreement (ECOTA) was not signed and ratified by all members.
There was no progress to report in the last ECOTA meeting held in
Ankara in early October 2012. The group announced that tariff
concessions will start as of January 2013, but there is no full
agreement on the list of goods that participating states see as
sensitive for their national economies. As such, trade liberalization
even among the few committed countries of ECO is far from realization.
ECO's action plan to develop energy and petroleum cooperation that
covers the 2011 to 2015 period was dealt a huge blow when US financial
sanctions on the Iranian oil and banking industry were put into
effect. Turkey has to slash its oil imports from Iran substantially
while cutting back on financial transactions with Iran. The report
issued by a high-level experts' group meeting on energy within ECO, in
which six countries participated in the last gathering in Ankara in
September 2012, was very bleak. Turkey has also abandoned its
investment schemes in developing the Iranian South Pars gas field
after Tehran tried to shortchange Ankara with less-than-promising
plots there. The lingering Azerbaijani and Iranian problems on Caspian
delimitation issues is also thwarting energy cooperation within ECO.
ECO is planning to discuss a draft proposal to establish a
Parliamentary Assembly (PAECO) for the organization in this summit. In
the Baku meeting, participants will probably approve the draft, agreed
to in a meeting held in Pakistan in September 2012 to establish the
assembly. But judging from Iranian lawmakers' comments on the proposal
so far, I'm afraid Iran will turn the original idea of Dr. Fehmida
Mirza, Pakistan's parliament speaker, into another West-bashing club
rather than an important legislative forum to discuss real issues for
the region.
Again, not all members of ECO signed the agreement for the
Ä°stanbul-based ECOBANK, which was established formally in 1995 among
Turkey, Iran and Pakistan but became operational only in 2008. The
funds available for the bank are very limited ($450 million paid-in
capital), and it can finance only a few projects. It also needs to
tread carefully in order to not run afoul of UN sanctions on Iran, one
of ECOBANK's founding members, as well as with unilateral ones imposed
by the US and the EU. Turkish concerns on this were made public in
Parliament last May when lawmakers were debating the amendment of the
ECO agreement. The lack of willingness on the part of other ECO
members to join in the bank, already under surveillance by Americans,
is also visible. For example, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
announced his country's intention to join the bank in 2010, but Baku
signed the agreement only late last month. It has not ratified it yet.
Afghanistan also signed in March 2012 but has not ratified it.
Another proposal is also delayed because of concerns over Iranian
sanctions. The ECO online money order system through postal services,
being developed among Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, was
halted with other ECO members not looking favorably on the proposal.
The fear is that Iranian businesses tied to the Revolutionary Guards
may try to use this system to bypass financial sanctions. The meeting
of the ECO Postal Authorities, scheduled for September 2012 in Tehran,
is not expected to break any ground on this proposal.
The lackluster performance of the core group within this organization
-- established among Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran in 2011 as part of
the trilateral process -- must be an indication that ECO is being
hindered by its own internal problems as well. Iran has started to
provide support to Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorism against
Turkey while adopting a more belligerent attitude against neighboring
Azerbaijan. There is a huge trust gap that Ankara and Baku feel
towards Tehran.
Iran talks the talk in ostensibly assisting Azerbaijan in resolving
its problems with neighboring Armenia, a country that illegally
occupies some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory. But in reality
Tehran continues to throw a lifeline to Armenia with energy and trade
deals. It also threatens to block the corridor linking Azerbaijan to
Nakhchivan, which receives most supplies, including gas, trade and
other services, from Azerbaijan via the Iranian route. The tension
became evident when Azerbaijan was prepared to waive visas for Turkish
nationals in 2009 during which Iran issued an ultimatum to cut off the
critical supply line between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan. Azerbaijan had
to back out of the deal at the last minute.
On transportation, the fact that Iran continues to implement its
practice of favoring Iranian truckers over others seriously hampers
cooperation among ECO members. Since many ECO proposals regarding
transportation and logistics center on Iran as the hub because of the
country's geographical location among transport routes, the
uncooperative attitude of Iran on these proposals impedes the
realization of proposals. There are also financial difficulties in
funding projects like a container train on the
Islamabad-Tehran-Ä°stanbul route.
The ECO region boasts a market of 400 million consumers with $680
billion in total trade volume as of 2010. But intra-group trade
constitutes only 7 percent of this, amounting to $47.6 billon. It has
not changed much compared to earlier years. I believe ECO will not go
anywhere as long as Iran is only interested in exploiting this
economic organization for its own national interests at the expense of
other member states while trying to take advantage of ECO's regional
role to stop Tehran's growing international isolation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Oct 15 2012
Iran to turn ECO into paper organization
ABDULLAH BOZKURT
The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the gathering of 10
countries -- Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- in
the Eurasia region, is rapidly becoming an empty talking shop, thanks
but no thanks to increasingly isolated Iran. Iran's unilateral efforts
to turn this organization into an anti-Western forum are hampering the
development of ECO into a credible regional economic organization. It
also complicates already existing intra-group differences within ECO.
To be frank, nothing substantial will come out of the 20th Meeting of
the Council of Ministers and the 12th Summit of Heads of
State/Government of ECO held on Oct. 15 and 16, respectively, in
Azerbaijan. The participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an
and Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu as well as other leading
dignitaries to these meetings will serve merely as a photo opportunity
for the press.
Though Iran is desperate to seize on the ECO summit to raise its
profile, battered in the region with its nuclear ambitions and its
stand on Syria, nobody expects Tehran to get anything of considerable
value out of this organization. Since the last summit held in Ä°stanbul
two years ago, the regional and global outlook for Iran has
deteriorated further with new sanctions slapped on by the UN as well
as the US and EU. Therefore, it is not surprising to see Iranians
rallying to utilize regional organizations like ECO or global ones
like the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to mitigate the effects of
sanctions.
Iran lacks the will to put anything valuable on the table in return
for increased recognition from its regional partners within ECO.
Despite the fact that ECO is headquartered in Tehran, we have not
witnessed so far a significant effort from Iranians to turn this
organization into a real hub for economic cooperation. Rather Iran has
tried to use ECO as its own propaganda machine, for which it has
raised eyebrows in a number of capitals in ECO member states.
There have been numerous proposals floated by member states for ECO
over the years, but many remain unfulfilled. For instance, the ECO
Trade Agreement (ECOTA) was not signed and ratified by all members.
There was no progress to report in the last ECOTA meeting held in
Ankara in early October 2012. The group announced that tariff
concessions will start as of January 2013, but there is no full
agreement on the list of goods that participating states see as
sensitive for their national economies. As such, trade liberalization
even among the few committed countries of ECO is far from realization.
ECO's action plan to develop energy and petroleum cooperation that
covers the 2011 to 2015 period was dealt a huge blow when US financial
sanctions on the Iranian oil and banking industry were put into
effect. Turkey has to slash its oil imports from Iran substantially
while cutting back on financial transactions with Iran. The report
issued by a high-level experts' group meeting on energy within ECO, in
which six countries participated in the last gathering in Ankara in
September 2012, was very bleak. Turkey has also abandoned its
investment schemes in developing the Iranian South Pars gas field
after Tehran tried to shortchange Ankara with less-than-promising
plots there. The lingering Azerbaijani and Iranian problems on Caspian
delimitation issues is also thwarting energy cooperation within ECO.
ECO is planning to discuss a draft proposal to establish a
Parliamentary Assembly (PAECO) for the organization in this summit. In
the Baku meeting, participants will probably approve the draft, agreed
to in a meeting held in Pakistan in September 2012 to establish the
assembly. But judging from Iranian lawmakers' comments on the proposal
so far, I'm afraid Iran will turn the original idea of Dr. Fehmida
Mirza, Pakistan's parliament speaker, into another West-bashing club
rather than an important legislative forum to discuss real issues for
the region.
Again, not all members of ECO signed the agreement for the
Ä°stanbul-based ECOBANK, which was established formally in 1995 among
Turkey, Iran and Pakistan but became operational only in 2008. The
funds available for the bank are very limited ($450 million paid-in
capital), and it can finance only a few projects. It also needs to
tread carefully in order to not run afoul of UN sanctions on Iran, one
of ECOBANK's founding members, as well as with unilateral ones imposed
by the US and the EU. Turkish concerns on this were made public in
Parliament last May when lawmakers were debating the amendment of the
ECO agreement. The lack of willingness on the part of other ECO
members to join in the bank, already under surveillance by Americans,
is also visible. For example, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
announced his country's intention to join the bank in 2010, but Baku
signed the agreement only late last month. It has not ratified it yet.
Afghanistan also signed in March 2012 but has not ratified it.
Another proposal is also delayed because of concerns over Iranian
sanctions. The ECO online money order system through postal services,
being developed among Azerbaijan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, was
halted with other ECO members not looking favorably on the proposal.
The fear is that Iranian businesses tied to the Revolutionary Guards
may try to use this system to bypass financial sanctions. The meeting
of the ECO Postal Authorities, scheduled for September 2012 in Tehran,
is not expected to break any ground on this proposal.
The lackluster performance of the core group within this organization
-- established among Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran in 2011 as part of
the trilateral process -- must be an indication that ECO is being
hindered by its own internal problems as well. Iran has started to
provide support to Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorism against
Turkey while adopting a more belligerent attitude against neighboring
Azerbaijan. There is a huge trust gap that Ankara and Baku feel
towards Tehran.
Iran talks the talk in ostensibly assisting Azerbaijan in resolving
its problems with neighboring Armenia, a country that illegally
occupies some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory. But in reality
Tehran continues to throw a lifeline to Armenia with energy and trade
deals. It also threatens to block the corridor linking Azerbaijan to
Nakhchivan, which receives most supplies, including gas, trade and
other services, from Azerbaijan via the Iranian route. The tension
became evident when Azerbaijan was prepared to waive visas for Turkish
nationals in 2009 during which Iran issued an ultimatum to cut off the
critical supply line between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan. Azerbaijan had
to back out of the deal at the last minute.
On transportation, the fact that Iran continues to implement its
practice of favoring Iranian truckers over others seriously hampers
cooperation among ECO members. Since many ECO proposals regarding
transportation and logistics center on Iran as the hub because of the
country's geographical location among transport routes, the
uncooperative attitude of Iran on these proposals impedes the
realization of proposals. There are also financial difficulties in
funding projects like a container train on the
Islamabad-Tehran-Ä°stanbul route.
The ECO region boasts a market of 400 million consumers with $680
billion in total trade volume as of 2010. But intra-group trade
constitutes only 7 percent of this, amounting to $47.6 billon. It has
not changed much compared to earlier years. I believe ECO will not go
anywhere as long as Iran is only interested in exploiting this
economic organization for its own national interests at the expense of
other member states while trying to take advantage of ECO's regional
role to stop Tehran's growing international isolation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress