International Expert Conference Held in Odessa

John Østergaard attended an International Expert Conference on The Safety of Navigation and Environmental Security in a Transboundary Context in the Black Sea Basin. The conference took place in Odessa and was organized by OSCE together with the Government of Ukraine. In a novel approach, two days of the conference was held on board a large catamaran which travelled along the coast, giving a true flavour the Ukraine’s coast.

The event had a wide-ranging maritime theme and incorporated an ambitious agenda. This included discussion on oil spill preparedness and potential strengthening of the Black Sea Commission in this and other areas of its work.

John has a long and varied experience of working in the Black Sea region and he was able to meet many old and new contacts. Over 180 people attended the event and this enabled him to consolidate his relations within the OSCE network and beyond. We anticipate that we will be able to continue supporting efforts to improve oil spill preparedness in the region, both through direct assistance to governments and our on-going management of industry’s oil spill preparedness regional initiative, OSPRI.

The conference was held both on land and onboard a catamaran