Legal basis on Caspian Sea status may be enlarged

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

A solid package of the final documents, which will enlarge the legal basis of the mechanism, may be developed by the next summit of the Caspian Five, which is expected to be held in Kazakhstan in 2016.

This remark was made by Russian State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister, Grigory Karasin in an interview with local media.

Earlier Karasin attended the meeting of Russian ambassadors in the Caspian region countries and representatives of relevant departments of the foreign ministry with the participation of the Astrakhan region authorities.

"With a focus on the agreements reached, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev made a proposal to try to agree on a draft Convention by the next, Fifth Caspian Summit, which, as our partners say, could be held in Kazakhstan in 2016," the Russian diplomat said. "We completely share such an approach and tuned to achieve maximum results."

He noted that the maintenance of peace and stability in the Caspian Sea belongs to the exclusive jurisdiction of the coastal countries.

"The bilateral relations are actively developing, including intense and very fruitful ties at the regional level," Karasin added. "Careful attention is paid to the problems of security in the Caspian region in its various aspects."

"We don't slow down the pace in the implementation of all existing agreements in the field of preservation of biological resources of the sea and its environment, and cooperation of the hydro-meteorological services," he stressed.

The uncertainty of the legal status of the Caspian Sea is one of the most discussed topics in between the five coastal states -- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran.

These countries signed a framework convention on the protection of the marine environment of the Caspian Sea in November 2003.In July 1998, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to implement sovereign rights for subsoil use, and the protocol to this agreement was signed in May 2002.

Agreements on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and the protocol were signed on November 29, 2001 and February 27, 2003 respectively. Also, an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea was signed by Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia on May 14, 2003.

Significant progress has been achieved in drafting a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea in September 2014 as well.

Baku supports defining the Caspian Sea's legal status taking into account the littoral states' sovereign rights, mutually beneficial partnership and peaceful means and negotiations.

Azerbaijan, together with Kazakhstan and Russia agreed on the delimitation of the sea in early 2000. However, the other littoral states -Turkmenistan and Iran- have not reached a consensus yet.

Once all Caspian states ratify the Agreement on Security Cooperation in the Caspian Sea, signed on November 18, 2010, in Baku, a new impetus will be given to close cooperation between the sides.