On June 28, Ashgabat hosted a meeting of foreign ministers of the Caspian states (CMFA), which discussed preparations for the forthcoming VI Caspian summit on June 29, the state information agency TDH reports .
The publication did not provide any detailed information, limiting itself to general phrases about multifaceted cooperation and the implementation of previously reached agreements, but recalled that past summits were held in Tehran (2007), Baku (2010), Astrakhan (2014) and Aktau (2018) . The Convention was adopted in Aktau on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea
For an analysis of the Convention and what it may affect, read the link .
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan also managed with general phrases that the ministers of the Caspian five discussed a number of topical issues of cooperation between the coastal states in the Caspian Sea, and also agreed on a draft Communiqué of the upcoming Caspian summit.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry did not report on the talks .
The Russian Foreign Ministry reports that the heads of delegations of the foreign ministries of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan agreed on further joint work to ensure security and strengthen cooperation in the Caspian Sea region.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov , in his speech on the results of the Ministerial Council, noted that the main task of the meeting was to prepare documents for the Caspian summit.
“We have received the report of experts who worked for several days and reported on the draft final communiqué, which is submitted for approval by the heads of state. It was decided that immediately after the approval (we hope so) the communiqué will be published. The key issues discussed today, on which an agreement was reached, are the reaffirmation of sovereignty, equality, non-interference in internal affairs and all other principles of the UN Charter on which Caspian cooperation is based,” Lavrov said.
Touching upon the topic of military cooperation, the diplomat said that "it is proposed to speed up work on an agreement on the development of confidence-building measures regarding the military activities of the Caspian states."
“The principle of the Convention in the legal status of the Caspian Sea was confirmed that the presence of armed forces of non-Caspian and non-coastal states is excluded here. In the same way as shipping is carried out only by ships under the flag of one of the Caspian countries. The same principle applies to the entry and exit of any vessel from the Caspian Sea,” Lavrov said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Tehran "supports the five-way mechanism, including Russia's recent proposal to complete and form a cooperation structure in the Caspian," Mehr news reported .
“We support the proposal to hold the second Caspian Economic Conference in Russia and believe that the Caspian states should pay special attention to two areas: trade and transport,” the diplomat said.
Abdollahian noted that despite the fact that four years have passed since the signing of the Convention, the very important issues of “defining maritime boundaries” and “demarcating the seabed and subsoil resources of the Caspian Sea have yet to be determined.
He also called for speeding up work on concluding an agreement on the definition of baselines ( baseline - in the law of the sea - this is the line from which the territorial waters, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the boundaries of the shelf - HT.) are counted ), which will lead to the implementation conventions.
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan