The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is an Eurasian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade and investment opportunities. The ECO is an ad hoc organisation under the United Nations Charter.^[3] The objective is to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union.^[4] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the ECO expanded to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in 1992.

The current framework of the ECO expresses itself mostly in the form of bilateral agreements and arbitration mechanisms between individual and fully sovereign member states. That makes the ECO similar to ASEAN in that it is an organisation that has its own offices and bureaucracy for implementation of trade amongst sovereign member states. This consists of the historically integrated agricultural region of the Ferghana Valley which allows for trade and common agricultural production in the border region between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Pakistan has free trade agreements with both Afghanistan and Iran which are in the process of implementation.

In 2017, a free trade agreement between Turkey and Iran was proposed to be signed in the future,^[5] in addition to a proposed Pakistan-Turkey Free Trade Agreement.^[6] The Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement is designed to facilitate trade for goods and services for Central Asia via both Afghanistan and Pakistan.^[7] That is in addition to the Ashgabat agreement, which is a multi-modal transport agreement between the Central Asian states.^[8] Further cooperation amongst members is planned in the form of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline, as well as a Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan pipeline. Current pipelines include the Tabriz–Ankara pipeline in addition to the planned Persian Pipeline. This is in addition to the transportation of oil and gas from Central Asian states such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to supply the industrialisation underway in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and beyond. Pakistan plans to diversify its source of oil and gas supplies towards the Central Asian states including petroleum import contracts with Azerbaijan.^[9]

The ECO's secretariat and cultural department are in Iran, its economic bureau is in Turkey, and its scientific bureau is in Pakistan.

The Economic Cooperation Organization was the successor organisation of what was the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD), founded in 1964, which ended activities in 1979. In 1985 Iran, Pakistan and Turkey joined to form the ECO. By the fall of 1992, the ECO expanded to include seven new members; Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The date of the expansion to its present strength, 28 November, is referred to as "ECO Day". The status and power of the ECO is growing. However, the organisation faces many challenges. Most importantly, the member states are lacking appropriate infrastructure and institutions which the Organization is primarily seeking to develop, to make full use of the available resources in the region and provide sustainable development for the member nations. The Economic Cooperation Organisation Trade Agreement (ECOTA) was signed on 17 July 2003 in Islamabad.^[10] ECO Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) is a new organization for trade promotion among member states located in Iran (2009).^[11] Under the agreement reached between ECO members, the common trade market should be established by 2015.^[4]

The official working language of the Economic Cooperation Organization is English. The official names of the organization are:

• Azeri: İqtisadi Əməkdaşlıq Təşkilatı
• Kazakh: Экономикалық ынтымақтастық ұйымы / Ekonomikalyq yntymaqtastyq ūiymy
• Kyrgyz: Экономикалык Кызматташтык Уюму
• Pashto: د اقتصادي همکاريو سازمان
• Persian: سازمان همکاری اقتصادی (Sāzmān-e Hamkāri-ye Eqtesādi)
• Russian: Организация экономического сотрудничества
• Tajik: Созмони Ҳамкории Иқтисодӣ
• Turkish: Ekonomik İşbirliği Teşkilatı
• Turkmen: Ykdysady Hyzmatdaşlyk Guramasy
• Urdu: اقتصادی تعاون تنظیم (iqtisadi taawun tanzeem)
• Uzbek: Иқтисодий Ҳамкорлик Ташкилоти

• Sustainable economic development of Member States;
• Progressive removal of trade barriers and promotion of intraregional trade; the Greater role of ECO region in the growth of world trade; Gradual integration of the economies of the Member States with the world economy;
• Development of transport & communications infrastructure linking the Member States with each other and with the outside world;
• Economic liberalization and privatization;
• Mobilization and utilization of ECO region's material resources;
• Effective utilization of the agricultural and industrial potentials of ECO region.
• Regional cooperation for drug abuse control, ecological and environmental protection and strengthening of historical and cultural ties among the peoples of the ECO region; and
• Mutually beneficial cooperation with regional and international organizations.
• Sovereign equality of the Member States and mutual advantage;
• Linking of national economic, development plans with ECO's immediate and long-term objectives to the extent possible;
• Joint efforts to gain freer access to markets outside the ECO region for the raw materials and finished products of the Member States;
• Effective utilization of ECO institutions, agreements and cooperative arrangements with other regional and international organizations including multilateral financial institutions;
• Common endeavors to develop a harmonized approach for participation in regional and global arrangements;
• Realization of economic cooperation strategy; and Exchanges in educational, scientific, technical and cultural fields

Activities of ECO are conducted through directorates under the supervision of Secretary-General and his Deputies which consider and evolve projects and programs of mutual benefit in the fields of:

• Trade and Investment
• Transport and Telecommunications
• Energy, Minerals and Environment
• Agriculture, Industry and Tourism
• Human Resources & Sustainable Development
• Project & Economic Research and Statistics

A Transport Council to develop clearer transport and transit policies is proposed.^[16]

ECO has selected Shakhrisabz as its tourism capital for 2024.^[17]

All the ECO states are also member-states of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), while ECO itself has observer status in the OIC since 1995.

Leaders are either heads of state or heads of government, depending on which is constitutionally the chief executive of the nation's government.

• Gül Train
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
• Middle East economic integration
• White card system
• List of country groupings
• List of multilateral free-trade agreements