29 Mar 2024
Saturday 21 November 2015 - 13:19
Story Code : 189699

Tehran summit to stress cooperation among GECF members: Minister

Tehran summit to stress cooperation among GECF members: Minister
TEHRAN, Nov. 21 (Shana) Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh opened the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) here on Saturday which holds prior to convention of the summit meeting scheduled for Monday.

The agenda of the ministerial meeting includes drafting the Final Declaration of the forums third summit which stresses cooperation among member states, he told participants in his Opening Remarks.

Later in the day, the 17th Ordinary Ministerial Meeting will convene with the Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the chairman to discuss the internal issues on the agenda such as budget and election of secretary general.

On Monday (Nov. 23), the 3rd GECF Gas Summit will be held to discuss market outlook and strategy while dignitaries take the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the working sessions.
The full text of Iranian ministers opening speech follows:

Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honor for the Islamic Republic of Iran to host the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the GECF. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Your Excellencies, esteemed ministers, heads of delegations, GECF secretary general and other esteemed members of delegations to Iran.

The main theme of the Extraordinary Meetings is discussing and reviewing the agenda and Declaration of the Third Gas Summit of the GECF, which will be held in Tehran, pursuant to the decisions of the GECF Ministerial Meetings.

As Your Excellencies are fully aware, the last High Level Group meeting held yesterday, finalized the draft declaration of the third Summit and submitted it to the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting for approval. In this regard, I would like to extend my appreciation to all the esteemed members of the High Level Group, especially the esteemed Chairman of the group who made significant contributions to finalizing the agenda and draft of the declaration.

One of the prominent features of The Third Gas Summit is the number of ministers and government officials participating at the Summit which is a tribute to the value that governments place on the importance of this event.

As the host of the Third Gas Summit, I.R. Iran has the honor of hosting nine heads of state and government. In addition, presence of the esteemed president of Turkmenistan as special guest has significantly enhanced the level of the current Summit. Undoubtedly, the Summit prepares the ground for more exchange of views, broader cooperation and synergy among the existing members of the Forum, and for encouraging more governments to join the GECF.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
As previously brought to Your Excellencies kind attention, the main theme of this Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting is endorsing the draft declaration finalized by our representatives in the High Level Group. To that effect, I would like to provide you with some explanations regarding the draft declaration which will be displayed on screen in a few minutes.

Firstly, I would like to announce that the two principles stipulated in the declaration of the previous Summits namely stressing the sovereign rights of the GECF countries over their energy resources, and strengthening cooperation and coordinating policies and so forth have been preserved in the current declaration as well.

Secondly, as Your Excellencies are fully aware, year 2015 has been an unprecedented and unique year in terms of climate change issues, and the meeting of COP21 is due to be held in Paris next week. Whereas, natural gas in san especial endowment which can contribute to GHC emissions, it has been treated especially in the Summit declaration. Therefore, it has been proposed to convey the message of the GECF on the occasion of Third Summit to COP21.

The declaration contains important guidelines and measures that the Secretariat should implement once it is adopted by the Summit.

Chief among the noteworthy points in the Declaration is paying attention to the role of cooperation and coordination among GECF member countries aimed at joint investments as well as strengthening mutual cooperation between member countries.

In addition, there are some other points in the Declaration that can be reviewed when it is displayed on the screen.

I look forward to promising exchange of views in order to improve the Declaration.

Before that, I invite the distinguished Secretary General of GECF to make a statement.

By SHANA
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