Caspian Sea states meet in Ashgabat to discuss environmental issues
By Nigar Orujova
The fifth round of the conference of the parties to the Framework Convention for the Protection of Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea has kicked off in Ashgabat.
The conference attended by the delegations from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, will last until May 30.
"The main purpose of the meeting is to discuss the most important documents for Tehran Convention to ensure a reliable system of environmental protection of the planet's largest inland water reservoir, the Caspian Sea," the organizers said.
The meeting is being co organized by Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Nature Protection and the State Enterprise on the Caspian Sea Issues under the President of Turkmenistan with the assistance of the Interim Secretariat of the Tehran Convention at the Regional Office of the UN Environment Program for Europe (ROE UNEP).
The meeting participants underscored that the Caspian Sea region is one of the most important geopolitical and economic centers in Eurasia and a powerful energy, transportation and communications hub in the world.
The topics discussed include development of the seacoast, high growth rates of the oil and gas industry, the increased network of pipelines, transportation routes without which the regional economic development is impossible, establishment of international cooperation in preserving the ecological welfare, biological diversity and rational use of the richest resources of this unique natural complex.
The international cooperation is based on clear legal standards, equality and mutual respect for the interests of all Caspian-littoral countries, according to the sides.
"This ecological forum is intended to preserve abundant bio-resources of the Caspian Sea, ensure a level of their use, meeting the interests of cooperation in the field of environmental protection of the Caspian countries," the organizers said.
The Caspian Sea littoral states signed Tehran Convention, the Framework Convention for the Protection of Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, in November 2003.
The Framework Convention was the first legally binding regional agreement signed by all the five Caspian littoral states, laying out general requirements and an institutional mechanism for environmental protection in the resource-rich Caspian region.
Moreover, the Caspian-littoral countries signed two protocols, namely, Protocol on Regional Preparedness, Response and Cooperation in case of Oil Pollution Incidents in 2011 and the Protocol on Protection of the Caspian Sea from land-based sources of pollution as a result of land-based activities in 2012.