“The GECF can play a major role in international decision-making process due to its influence in the global market,” Rouhani said in a meeting with the energy ministers and representatives of the 13 member states and four observer countries of the GECF on Sunday.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 15th ministerial meeting of the GECF held in Iran’s capital, Tehran, earlier on Sunday.
During the ministerial meeting, the Islamic Republic’s nominee Mohammad-Hossein Adeli was elected as the new secretary general of the forum for the next two years. Adeli - a former head of Iran’s Central Bank and former envoy to Japan, Canada and Britain - will replace Russian Leonid Bukhanovsky.
Rouhani expressed hope that Iran as the secretary general of the forum would play a prominent role in achieving the objectives of the GECF.
The Iranian president added that “fair competition” among GECF member states should not compromise their common interests.
“We should use the forum to administer justice and develop better and more cooperation and interaction at the global level,” Rouhani noted.
The GECF is an intergovernmental organization that brings together the world's major natural gas producers, namely Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Venezuela.
Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands and Norway have the observer status.
The GECF was founded in Tehran in 2001 and its member states control over 70 percent of the world's natural gas reserves as well as more than 80 percent of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production.
