A bilateral meeting between the Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Shri Kiren Rijiju and Mr. Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for Environment, Ocean & Fisheries, European Union (EU) was held in New Delhi today, 26 July 2023.
The meeting was organised to discuss the common issues for both, viz., Blue economy, Marine litter, Marine Bio-diversity, Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) and Ocean and Fisheries dialogue.India highlighted the G-20 activities related to Blue Economy held in the Diu summit and the ‘Ocean 20 Dialogue’.
Blue Economy is an important agenda for both the parties and jointly wants to develop sustainable practices and conservation of ecosystems as priority.India requires the European Union (EU) to provide technical support for Ocean Accounting Framework.
India has supported the EU proposal for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Antarctic oceans which when approved by the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) will result in the conservation of 1% of Marine Areas.
Marine pollution was highlighted as an important area of concern by Shri Rijiju. The EU Commissioner also mentioned that not only cleaning the oceans but preventing the plastics from their source was important and hoped that the legally binding agreement is achieved at the earliest.
Marine Bio-diversity of areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ): Ministry of Earth Sciences is engaged in inventorisation and documentation of marine biodiversity. It seeks collaboration with EU in using innovative and non-invasive approaches such as machine learning, artificial intelligence towards this endeavour.