Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

A forum of representatives of the Caspian littoral countries opened in Turkmenistan's capital city Ashgabat, on September 25.

The three-day event, organized by the Turkmen Foreign Ministry and the State Enterprise for Caspian Sea related issues under the Turkmen president, is attended by the authorized representatives from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.

The forum will discuss the agreement on prevention of emergency situations in the Caspian Sea.

In particular, the matter rests in the draft agreement regulating the cooperation of the Caspian littoral countries to prevent the occurrence of natural and man-made emergency situations in the Caspian Sea in coastal areas and to deal with the consequences.

Ashgabat hosted the first similar event in April 2013.

The draft agreement on cooperation in the sphere was worked out by the Turkmen side in accordance with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov's initiative expressed during the third summit of heads of the Caspian littoral countries in Baku in November 2010.

"The favorable geographical location, rich hydrocarbon, fish and other natural resources and good climatic conditions have contributed to the fact that today the Caspian region has become the fastest growing industrial, transport and resort centre," Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary state news service reported on September 25. "Therefore, the issue of establishing international cooperation is of particular importance to create a single and robust system of ecological security of the Caspian Sea."

The Caspian Sea is the world's largest intra-basin that is not associated with the World Ocean, which has a climate value. It is unique due to various flora and fauna, including the world's largest shoal of sturgeon (90 present of the world reserves).