Academician: Caspian Sea to turn into world's most important transport and energy center

"The Caspian Sea is a unique sea, known since antiquity, the famous Great Silk Road passed through here. And the lowering of its level today is only one of the many problems".

Vice President of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, academician Ibrahim Guliyev made the remark in an interview with Caliber.Az in the margins of the international conference "The Caspian Sea level change, forecasts and measures for adaptation to climate change" held in Baku on Tuesday, organized by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan with the support of the UN Development Programme.

According to him, the ANAS is proposed to create an International Center for the Study of the Caspian Sea with the participation of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran.

"An agreement has already been reached with the academies of sciences of Russia and Kazakhstan. Discussions are going on with the Iranian side, but the work with Turkmenistan is not progressing yet. But in order to study the Caspian Sea it is necessary to have close and effective cooperation between all five countries of the region," he added.

"For 22 years we, the scientific society, have been waiting for such a large-scale conference, which was sometimes hampered by geopolitical reasons. But the meeting of the heads of the Caspian littoral states in Ashgabat gave a great impetus to the scientific discussion of the Caspian problems.

In the nearest 10 years, the Caspian will turn into the most important transport, logistics, and energy center of the world. The discovery of new oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkmenistan contributes to this. This makes the Caspian attractive, while at the same time the lowering of the sea level is alarming.

Scientific research at a new technical and technological level is needed. Now our research is based on 30-40 years' experience. Together with archeologists, it is necessary to study, for instance, what was happening to the Caspian Sea 10 thousand years ago," the scientist underlined.

The vice-president of ANAS emphasized that he is a supporter of the moderate scenario of the Caspian Sea change.

"I would like state officials to listen to scientists in this matter," Ibrahim Guliyev stressed.