06-11-2009 04:52:33
Ashgabat wants to resolve Caspian issues through diplomacy, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry has said.Since 1992, the five Caspian littoral states - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran - have actively negotiated the issue, and interested parties are seeking mutually acceptable solutions.
"Turkmenistan is committed to upholding the national interests of all parties in the negotiation process and is steadily guided by international legal standards adopted on the issue," the ministry said in a statement. "Turkmenistan supports resolving Caspian Sea-related issues only via diplomatic means."
For the first time, an agreement on the need for a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, a source of huge hydrocarbon reserves and valuable caviar stocks, was hammered out at the first meeting of the Caspian littoral states’ foreign ministers in Ashgabat November 11-12, 1996.
The meeting determined organizational and legal form of a permanent negotiating mechanism in the body of a special working group whose activity has intensified in recent years. The Turkmen capital is presently hosting a regular meeting where Azerbaijan is represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov.
The ministry noted that a fundamental principle of Turkmenistan's foreign policy is "to provide favorable conditions for a committed partnership, implement mutually beneficial economic projects in various fields, and create an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding."
"This applies especially to neighboring states with which Turkmenistan is linked historically, culturally, and geographically," the statement said. "Good-neighborliness, mutual respect and equality are important factors for joint collaboration to strengthen peace, security and international cooperation in the Caspian Sea region."
The convention on the Caspian’s legal status will allow to solve existing problems in conserving, reproducing and using its biological resources, Ashgabat believes. Similarly, issues of merchant shipping and hydrocarbon use and development from the Caspian’s seabed and subsoil will also find their solution.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov recently said Turkmenistan is reviewing the possibility of launching bilateral talks with Azerbaijan to discuss the affiliation of a number of fields in the Caspian Sea. He noted that there are several "good options" for reaching a compromise.
The two littoral states face a dispute over the Azeri, Chirag and Kapaz fields, which Ashgabat calls Osman, Omar and Sardar. President Berdymukhamedov has said his country considers as its own the oil and gas fields being developed by Azerbaijan in the allegedly disputed section of the Caspian.
The two Turkic states are considered by the European Union as a primary energy source for the future Nabucco gas pipeline project via Turkey, which will allow European countries to diversify their energy supplies.*
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