The Caspian Convention will resolve many issues – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
June 07, 2018 | 11:33 |212
The Caspian littoral states (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) are working to adopt a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea at a summit to be held in August 2018 in Kazakhstan. It was reported by one of the most informed Russian politicians – Grigory Karasin, State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, at Russia’s State Duma. According to him, "The working group is dealing with a number of controversial and uncertain issues. The adoption of the convention will help resolve controversial issues, including the resolution of disputes over the use of resources, separation of water space, and so on.” News agencies also reported that the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev had announced that Aktau will host the Summit of the Heads of State of the Caspian littoral countries, where leaders and delegations of five countries will take part. Earlier the summit was planned to be held in Astana. It seems that the “Caspian drama” is coming to a head. For more than 20 years, the littoral countries have been working on this document, and it sometimes seemed that negotiations, which could not see the end, were at a dead end. However, the proverb is that: “Everything comes to him who waits”. Now the Caspian states have agreed on the main points of controversy issues, and reached the final straightaway. Final amendments and agreements are being made on the text of the convention, which will be presented at the Caspian summit in August to be signed by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. This convention regulates many different aspects of littoral countries’ activities at the sea, but we would like to talk briefly about one issue – the construction of pipelines in the Caspian Sea. Now, in the absence of this convention, the construction of a pipeline system from one national sector to another is possible only with the consent of all five littoral countries. For example, to build a Caspian subsea gas pipeline (Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline) between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, it is also necessary to obtain the consent of the other three states – Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia. It is despite the fact that the gas pipeline will pass only Turkmen and Azerbaijan territorial waters, without entering other national sectors. The adoption of the Caspian Convention greatly simplifies this issue. In this case, Ashgabat and Baku can build the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline without asking the consent of the other littoral states. It means that the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline will be built at the end, and the Southern Gas Corridor will receive Turkmen gas to major consumer geographies as Turkey and Europe via Caspian Sea. I would venture to assume that Karasin’s speech and Nazarbayev’s announcement caused a sigh of relief in many government offices in Baku, Ankara, Tbilisi and Brussels.Nury AMANOV
