ISTANBUL 

Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Mesoud Pazeshkian met on Friday on the sidelines of the 17th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the city of Khankendi, Azerbaijan.

Further information on the closed-door meeting was not immediately available.

Holding the summit in Khankendi, which was once the capital of the occupying regime in Karabakh, is of symbolic importance for Azerbaijan.

The ECO is a political and economic intergovernmental organization founded by Türkiye, Pakistan, and Iran in 1985 to serve as a platform to discuss and improve development and promote trade and investment opportunities.

It has seven other members: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is an observer member.

During his address to the summit, Erdogan reiterated that Türkiye made intense efforts to stop conflict between Iran and Israel from spreading across the region.