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Vladimir Putin's visit to Azerbaijan

Russian and Azeri presidents agree to outline ways to prevent eco disaster in Caspian Sea

"We agreed to jointly analyze the situation and outline ways both in a bilateral and five-sided format," Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev said

BAKU, August 19. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have agreed to jointly analyze and outline ways to prevent a possible ecological disaster in the Caspian Sea.

During the talks of the two leaders in Baku, Aliyev stressed that the shallowing of the Caspian Sea is catastrophic.

"From the window of the room where we were negotiating, I showed Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin - TASS) the rocks that were under water two years ago, and today they have already come up to the surface by a meter. And we are observing this along the entire coast," Aliyev said following the talks with Putin.

"We agreed to jointly analyze the situation and outline ways both in a bilateral and five-sided format in order to prevent a possible environmental disaster, that is, the manifestation of this environmental disaster that we can already see with the naked eye," he stressed.

The Caspian Sea is the largest closed water body on Earth. Its length from north to south is approximately 1,200 km, its width from west to east is from 195 to 435 km. More than 130 rivers flow into the Caspian Sea, of which the largest are the Volga, Ural, Terek, Sulak, Samur. Five states are located on the Caspian coastline - Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Aliyev also thanked Putin for supporting Azerbaijan's candidacy as a venue for the UN Climate Change Conference COP-29.

"Russia's support was extremely important. And we are currently working, including in a bilateral format, on issues related to the preparation of this climate conference," he noted. The Baku conference will be the first in the post-Soviet space. Earlier, Aliyev said that, according to preliminary estimates, 70,000-80,000 foreign guests will visit the capital of Azerbaijan during the COP-29.

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