On the sideline of the First ECO Ministerial Meeting on Environment, H. E. Seyed Mojtaba Arastou, ECO Secretary General called on Dr. Klaus Topfer, Executive Secretary of United Nation’s Environment Plan (UNEP) and discussed the current issues of concern to both organizations.

In this meeting, the two officials provided reports on the ongoing environmental activities in the ECO region, operated by their organizations, and also stressed on their eagerness to expand the cooperation among the two organizations in order to promote the environmental situation of the region. It was also decided that the approved decisions of the First ECO Ministerial Meeting on Environment, in the form of “Tehran Declaration” and “Plan of Action”, be taken up and considered by UNEP Board of Governors meeting, to be held in Nairobi-Kenya, By the end of January 2003.

It was also agreed that with the importance attached to the ECO region’s environmental plans, after the meeting of UNEP Board of Governors, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) would be signed between the two Organizations.