The agreements are to be signed at the 'Oceans Meeting', an event scheduled for 7 and 8 September in Lisbon, with the theme of the health of the oceans and human health.

The "bilateral commitments" entailed by the agreements to be signed with members of the Community of Portuguese-Language Country (CPLP) and Mediterranean and North Atlantic countries, the minister told Lusa, are essential because "the sea and the ocean have no frontiers."

At the September meeting - to be attended by delegates from 44 countries, including 36 ministers, a joint statement is to be signed and released with a "global commitment" to research on and preservation and sustainable use of the oceans.

"Portugal wants to mobilise the international community" for this common good, said Vitorino of the meeting, which she said is to focus "on preservation and on the obligation that the community has to preserve the ocean."

She recalled that Portugal in June pledged at the United Nations Conference on the Oceans to double the area of its protected marine zones and to develop various programmes to help clean up the Atlantic .

The 2017 Oceans Meeting, which is to be held at the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Lisbon, is to include a ministerial summit, an international conference with scientist from around the world, and business contact sessions on the preservation and sustainability of the oceans.