He expressed this opinion in an article published in the Vneshneekonomicheskiye Svyazi (External Economic Relations) magazine.
He said, "we shall oppose such policy and insist that new measures for protecting the marine environment and ensuring the navigation safety should be introduced only by a decision of competent international forums, on the basis of a thorough analysis of the situation."
"This is all the more important because the main source of sea pollution, at least in the European region, is coastal activity rather than maritime traffic, no matter how shocking the consequences of such disasters as the Prestige oil tanker accident off the Spanish coast in November 2002 might have been," he said.
"We have never doubted that some regions of the world ocean, in view of their special ecological or socio-economic significance and higher vulnerability to the damage done by maritime traffic, need special protection," Sergei Lavrov said. He mentioned, in this connection, the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast and the sea expanses of the Arctic and the Antarctic.
At the same time, "it is hard to agree that this status should be given to huge sea areas of traditionally intensive maritime traffic which are not characterized by the above specifics," the Russian minister said in conclusion.
