Turkmenistan creates new formats for interaction across the Aral Sea
January 31, 2018 | 09:36 |1740
The first meeting of the Board of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) in six years was held in the Yildiz hotel in Ashgabat. The event is really significant, because over the years a lot of questions have accumulated that demanded coordinated actions of the Fund's founding countries. Finally, today these issues were discussed, and Turkmenistan, which is the chairman of the Executive Committee of IFAS from 2017, initiated a number of concrete measures to intensify the activities of the organization, reflected in the new Work Plan of the Fund.Eziz OVEZOV
Head of the Executive Directorate of IFAS in Kazakhstan Bekniyaz Bolat in an interview for Orient stressed that one of the main innovations proposed by Turkmenistan was the United Nations special program for the Aral Sea basin. This will be a separate area of the UN activities in support of the efforts of the IFAS member countries to restore the Aral Sea.
Also, our interlocutor informed that the development of the fourth Program of Actions and projects aimed at improving the socio-economic and environmental situation in the Aral Sea basin (ASBM-4) is in process today, in which Turkmenistan also introduced a large number of fresh initiatives that received a positive response from the side of the heads of the Board of IFAS.
Touching upon the preparation of the meeting of the Council of the Heads of State of Central Asia, which was actively discussed at the forum, Bekniyaz Bolat said that his conduct is scheduled for August this year and will be held in the capital of Turkmenistan.
"This is a truly important event, as the heads of our states have not met for the Aral question since 2009," he said. "This meeting will help to discuss a huge number of important issues and consolidate efforts to solve the water and environmental problems of the region at the highest level."
