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Due progress made in drafting Caspian status convention

Russia's Foreign Minister outlines some of the key issues covered by the convention

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Pochuev

MOSCOW, November 21./ITAR-TASS/. - Work on a convention that would establish the legal status of the Caspian Sea has been progressing satisfactory, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the special task group drafting this document.

“Talks on agreements on hydrometeorology, on preserving and using the Caspian Sea’s biological resources, and on preventing emergencies and eliminating their aftermath are in the final stage,” as well as the ratification of the 2010 Agreement on Security Cooperation on the Caspian Sea, Lavrov said.

Lavrov added time was ripe for working out protocols that would elaborate on different planks of cooperation stated in earlier reached agreements. An important step here, Lavrov said, would be the fourth summit of the Caspian littoral states due in Moscow in the second half of 2014.

“We believe the summit’s final documents should cement the existing understanding of a number of key issues,” Lavrov said, adding “there is no need to change the existing order and invent some new structures”.

“During more than twenty years since the moment new independent states emerged near the Caspian, a certain code of conduct has been established within the quintet (Russia, Kazkhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan) based on mutual trust and respect for each other’s interests,” Lavrov said. These principles would serve as the foundation of the summit’s final documents.

Lavrov expressed the certainty these documents and the agenda would be formulated in the following months.

“Interim results may be discussed at the next conference of the Caspian states’ foreign ministers that we shall be happy to receive in Moscow next spring,” he said.

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