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Russian MFA: Decisions on co-op between Caspian states being fully implemented

16 November 2018 10:06 (UTC+04:00)
Russian MFA: Decisions on co-op between Caspian states being fully implemented

By Leman Mammadova

Implementation of cooperation between the Caspian States based on the Convention of the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea reached in August of this year will be launched soon. A meeting of the Working Group, established on the basis of the Aktau agreement, will soon take place in Baku.

Decisions on cooperation between the Caspian states are being fully implemented, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press conference Nov. 15.

She was answering Trend’s question on the progress in implementation of the agreements reached during the Caspian Sea Summit in August.

“We note with satisfaction the dynamic development of the five-sided cooperation on the Caspian Sea. This is mainly conditioned by the significant results achieved during the fifth Caspian Summit in Aktau on August 12,” she said.

In the Caspian states, procedures have started to ratify the convention, Zakharova said.

“A meeting of the high-level working group, established to monitor various aspects of cooperation on the Caspian Sea, is being prepared. The first such meeting in this format will be held soon in Baku,” she added.

Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, the so-called "Constitution" of the Caspian Sea, was signed in August at the fifth Summit of Heads of the Caspian littoral states in Aktau, after 22 years of systematic talks.

Convention gives Caspian "a special legal status" - it was declared neither lake nor sea. If viewed as a sea, the Caspian basin would be subject to the International Maritime Law, and rights to use the Caspian Sea wouldn't be limited to the coastal countries. This is definitely against the interests of Russia and Iran in the region. On the other hand, as a lake, its area would be divided equally between the five countries, and this leads to controversy in the distribution of hydrocarbon reserves.

According to the Convention, water surface remains in common use for all coastal countries, with states granted jurisdiction over 15 nautical miles of water from their coasts and fishing rights over an additional ten miles.

The seabed, rich in natural resources, is divided between neighboring countries in accordance with international law, based on the agreement of the neighboring states.

The provision on the inadmissibility of third-party armed forces in the Caspian Sea can be regarded as one of the key points of the Convention.

The convention also permits the construction of pipelines, which only require the approval of the countries whose seabed they pass. At the same time, such projects should comply with environmental safety.

The signing of the Convention has been regarded as a triumph of multilateral diplomacy by the international community and the world media.

The cooperation between Caspian states based on convention is expected to accelerate energy projects, allowing the implementation of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline.

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