IRNA – President Hassan Rouhani returned home late on Wednesday from Islamabad where he attended the 13th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

President Rouhani in a message intended to be published in the special letter of the ECO summit underlined that as a founding member of the ECO, Iran considers empowering the entity a priority for itself on the basis of mutual respect.

In an address to the summit on Wednesday, he described the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as an achievement not only for Iran but also for entire region, saying that it has created new conditions for economic cooperation in the region as well as Iran’s ties with the world.

The end of prefabricated crisis over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and conclusion of the international pact endorsed by the UN Security Council was a great accomplishment not only for Iran but for the entire region as well, he said.

Oppressive sanctions imposed on Iran by means of Iranophobia collapsed and once again the world saw Iran’s responsibility and respect to international accords, he said.

“I strongly believe that normalization of Iran’s commercial ties with the world will benefit both the Iranian nation and other regional states,” he said.

“We do not see any obstacle in the way of deepening cooperation among ECO members. Furthermore, we are ready to move forward along with the other member states,” Rouhani said.

To this end, accelerating establishment of ECO commercial trade zone as well as the agreement for promoting investment is necessary, he said, noting that his administration is ready to help remove all the impediments in the way of the spheres.

“My administration welcomes bolstering cooperation in the fields of transit and transportation, banking, science and technology, agriculture and food security, culture and environmental tourism and countering natural disasters,” Rouhani said.

During the summit, the rotating presidency of the ECO was officially handed over to the host Pakistan by Azerbaijan Republic.

Regional security and fighting terrorism, opposing adoption of migration policies by certain countries, opposing unilateral sanctions against countries and underlining commercial cooperation among ECO member states were among major points of closing statement of the 13th ECO Summit.