Kazem Gharibabadi, the Deputy Legal and International Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs and Iran's Special Representative for Caspian Sea Affairs, who has traveled to Astana, met and held talks with Erlan Nuralyuly Nysanbaev, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan.

The two sides reviewed environmental issues of the Caspian Sea, particularly the decline in the sea's water level, emphasizing the necessity for serious and immediate action at both national and five-party levels.

Within this framework, it was agreed that, in addition to establishing a joint bilateral working group between the two countries, expert meetings would be held with the aim of reviewing existing plans and formulating an action plan to be presented to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 7) to the Tehran Convention, which will be held in Tehran in May.

Iran is also scheduled to host the summit of heads of state from the Caspian Sea littoral countries on August 12.