Negotiations by concerned basin countries over the use of their shared water resources are the key in the cooperative management of transboundary water systems. In order for any meaningful agreements to be reached, what procedure should be taken, what needs be done at what stage of the negotiation, and what "common perceptions" need be held by all the parties? These questions have proved to be of paramount importance from previous case studies, where basin countries have failed to manage their transboundary waters in a cooperative manner. At the same time, more appropriate policy alternatives for transboundary waters management are increasingly in demand today. In this context, by offering a platform for multidisciplinary discussions with various case studies from around the world, this symposium aims to extract some valuable lessons for negotiations and dialogue of basin countries through case studies from different parts of the world and discussion by and with experts. Such lessons will be indispensable for effective and integrated management of transboundary waters today. In addition, it is strongly expected that analyses from the viewpoint of international law and institutional perspectives as well as comparative geopolitical analysis, which have been relatively neglected thus far, will be a fresh contribution from this forum.

In recent years studies on transboundary waters management have been attracting an increasing number of researchers around the world. In this symposium, some of the researchers at the forefront of this field will present their experiences and lessons learned from a variety of transboundary water cases with innovative perspectives.

16:50-17:00 Closing remarks
Prof. Tsuneaki Yoshida, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo