News
The European Parliament held a joint session of its committees (Delegations) on Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia at Strasbourg on 14 March 2018 based on the SFG Water Cooperation Quotient. It was also attended by the Parliament officials and diplomats of the countries under discussion in Brussels. SFG President was invited to address the joint session by VoIP from Mumbai.
The chairs of the European Parliament Delegations opened the discussion with reference to the importance of the Water Cooperation Quotient. SFG briefed the Members of European Parliament on recent positive changes in water relations between Central Asian countries, following the summit meeting between Presidents of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which led to a breakthrough on cooperation in the construction of Rogun Dam and the use of hydro-electricity for Central Asia. SFG mentioned recent expression of interest in cooperation with Afghanistan and Iraq, emerging from Iran. As these developments are new, there is a need to consolidate them. There was also discussion on security threats to dams in Afghanistan from terrorists associated with Taliban.
The discussion covered many policy issues on which the European Union or the European Parliament can take action, including
� Changing the mix of financial aid and investments into Central Asia to increase assistance for supporting political dialogue processes among legislators, and promoting the use of blended finance to cover capital costs of water infrastructure projectsThe chairs concluded that the issue of trans-boundary water cooperation was of growing importance as it was closely linked to the prospects of peace and security in the region.
