Caspian Five favours region’s stable development - Russian FM

MOSCOW, April 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Five Caspian littoral countries - Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - favour the peaceful and stable development in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

“The meeting is the preparation for the 4th summit,” Lavrov said at a ministerial conference on Tuesday.

“The leaders of our countries pay much attention to the Caspian problem,” he said.

“Such approach is supported by our countries’ public,” Lavrov said.

“In recent years we’ve succeeded in creating a cantractual and legal groundwork and solving all problems on an equal basis and account of the interests of each other ,” he said.

After the 3rd Caspian summit in 2010 the leaders set concrete tasks. “On the Caspian legal status we set the task to work out parameters for waste disposal in the water area, on security -  to start implementing agreements to maintain the Caspian Sea as a water area of peace and security, on fisheries - to create a mechanism for imposing a moratorium on sturgeon catching. Today we’ll determine major trends for further work,” Lavrov said.

The Ministers Sergei Lavrov, Elmar Mamadyarov, Javad Zarif, Yerlan Idrisov, and Rashid Meredov will discuss the programme and agenda of the summit and its draft final documents.