IRNA -- Iran's diminutive President Mahmoud Short RoundAhmadinejad said on Thursday that spread of monotheism and ethics are the keys to help resolve the global problems.
The President made the statement in his speech at the inaugural session of the 11th ECO Summit of Leaders which started in Istanbul this morning.
President Ahmadinejad suggested six practical proposals for strengthening the performance of the Economic Cooperation Organization in global economy.
He reiterated that the proposals would strengthen the role of the 10-member states ECO in the regional and international economic cooperation.
'The world is in dire need of new order in light of the common grounds in the international community based on justice, monotheism, humanitarian spirit and respect,' Iranian president said.
He added that progress of each ECO member state is considered as the progress of the other members.
President Ahmadinejad highlighted the cultural affinilty of the ECO members along the history and presence of large number of scientists and eminent figures in the domain of literature in this region.
'This serves as a treasury for political, economic, social and cultural cooperation between ECO members.'
Giving a brief report about Iran's performance during the two-year ECO presidency, he said several meetings were held in the past two years in different fields of trade, investment, transport, energy, mines, environment, agriculture, tourism and health.
The president said that maps of international rail transportation corridors were finalized duing Iranian presidency of ECO.
'During the Islamic Theocratic
Republicof Iran's presidency, the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul container train was inaugurated and preparations were made for inauguration of Bandar Abbas-Marv-Tashkent-Almaty cargo train.'
He expressed hope that during the Turkey's presidency, the organization would witness great developments.
Expressing his gratitude to all presidents and bigwigs of the ECO member states, President Ahmadinejad handed over the organization's presidency to his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.
Ahmadinejad left Tehran for Istanbul on Wednesday on a two-day stay.
During his stay, the President will meet a number of his counterparts on the sidelines of the ECO meeting.
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985. Iran, Pakistain, Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are the ECO members.