Twenty-seven years ago today, May 11, 1998 (April 16, 1998, the Central and Western Asia Economic Cooperation Summit held a meeting to adopt the Almaty Declaration. On May 11, 1998, the presidents of the five Central Asian countries and Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan, as well as the prime ministers of Azerbaijan and Pakistan, held the fifth summit of the Central and Western Asian Economic Cooperation Organization here and adopted the Almaty Declaration calling for the establishment of a regional transportation, communications and energy system. The declaration pointed out that OECD member countries have a very important geostrategic position, rich reserves of natural resources, and common economic development potential, so they will play a key role in the international arena. Countries should first concentrate their efforts to build a diversified oil and gas transportation pipeline network in the region as soon as possible to promote economic development of all countries and improve people's living standards. The Central and Western Asia Economic Cooperation Organization, formerly known as the "Regional Cooperation and Development Organization", was established in July 1964. The founding countries were Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. It was renamed to its current name in 1985. In 1992, the five former Soviet Union and Central Asia countries, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan, joined, and their member states expanded to ten countries. At the summit meetings in the past two years, countries have gradually regarded the formation of a unified transportation system in the region and the establishment of an export network for oil and gas resources as the top priority aspects of multilateral cooperation. The Almaty Declaration was signed on December 21, 1991 by the leaders of the 11 republics of the Soviet Union (excluding the 3 Baltic States and Georgia) at the summit meeting held in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan.