Hosting Next GECF Summit Indicates Capacity Of Iran Diplomacy: Sr MP

Tehran, July 2, IRNA – Hosting the 3rd summit of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) indicates high capacity of Iranian international diplomacy, lawmaker Mehdi Mousavi-Nejad said on Monday. Mousavi-Nejad who is a member of the parliamentˈs Energy Commission said that Iran holds strategic gas reserves and plays an important role in supplying the world demand. Success in energy diplomacy will affect other areas of diplomacy, he added. Iran sits on the worldˈs biggest gas reserves, he said, stressing Iranˈs role as an influential player in world gas market. The proposal to host the summit was made by Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi at a GECF ministerial meeting in the Russian capital, Moscow, on Saturday. The proposal was welcomed and unanimously accepted by the energy ministers of world leading gas exporting countries. Iran’s oil minister arrived in Moscow on Friday, heading a high-ranking delegation, to attend the GECF ministerial meeting ahead of the forum’s second summit scheduled to be held in Moscow on July 1-2. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the event Monday and is expected to deliver a speech at the summit. GECF is a forum of the world’s leading gas producers and was set up as international governmental organization with the objective to increase the level of coordination and strengthen the cooperation among the member countries. GECF aims to build a mechanism for a more meaningful dialogue between gas producers and gas consumers for the sake of stability and security of supply and demand in global natural gas markets. In accordance with the GECF Statute, the organization supports the sovereign rights of its members over their natural gas resources and their abilities to develop, preserve and use such resources for the benefit of their nations, through exchange of experience, views, information and coordination in gas-related matters. The member states of the Forum are: Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands and Norway have the observer status. The GECF has a strong position on the world gas market and among international energy organizations. Its potential rests on the enormous natural gas reserves of the member states all together accumulating 62% of the world proved natural gas reserves. The Forum highly values this potential of its member states and observer nations, and at the same time is looking forward to further increase in their numbers and welcomes new members that share the common interests and objectives of the Forum’s Statute./end