Iran’s Frist Vice President Es’hagh Jahangiri underlined the need to provide the grounds for establishing an "environmental secretariat" to review the major projects in the Caspian Sea.
“The Caspian Sea possesses rich energy resources... The littoral states should take the environmental aspects into consideration while exploiting such resources,” Jahangiri said on Monday while addressing the first Caspian Economic Forum, which is underway in Turkmenistan.
He called for collective supervision on the projects to make sure they meet the requirements of the environmental protocols.
All littoral states, including Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, should take part in monitoring the Caspian Sea developmental projects, which can affect the sea’s environment, Jahangiri said.
The first economic forum of the Caspian Sea littoral states started on Sunday in Turkmenistan with representatives of the governments, private sectors, academic communities and a number of international organizations.
The assembly coincides with the World Caspian Sea Day and the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea (August 12).
Within the forum, topics such as project implementation and joint plans, exchange of experiences on the development of special zones or economic freedom, legislation and standards, digital economy, cooperation between coastal regions and joint ventures were reviewed.
So far, five joint meetings have been held at the level of heads of the Caspian states and agreements have been reached on how the regional countries shall cooperate.
The most important agreement reached in these years concerns the Caspian Sea environmental issues, which include protocols to combat oil spills at sea, protection against groundwater pollution and the Caspian biodiversity protection protocol.
MNA/IRN83434542