Principles

• The participating countries recognize the importance of regional co operation, in particular in the North-East Asian region, for ocean observing and research activities, within the framework of the Global Ocean Observing System;
• Each participating country shall designate responsible organizations to participate in NEAR-GOOS;
• Each participating country shall implement NEAR GOOS in co-operation with IOC and the other organizations co-sponsoring GOOS;
• The participating countries shall promote human resource training activities within the WESTPAC region, with specific objectives that the covering area of the project and the number of the participating countries should be expanded as well as the observational network improved;
• The data obtained within the context of NEAR-GOOS shall be made available to the Data Bases, and shall be accessible to other countries within the framework of GOOS. To promote the exchange of data between the regions within the framework of GOOS, the participating countries shall co-operate with other regional activities related to GOOS. The evaluation of the operation of NEAR-GOOS shall be reported regularly to the governing bodies of IOC through I-GOOS and WESTPAC Sub-Commission;
• ALL IOC-and particularly WESTPAC-Member States, is encouraged to participate in NEAR-GOOS through the submission of data and use of the NEAR-GOOS data bases.