Moscow meeting on Caspian Sea status reports progress

The 29th meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Convention on legal status of the Caspian Sea at the level of deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian littoral states was held in Moscow on 19-20 July.

The meeting brought together delegations of Azerbaijan (headed by Khalafov), Iran (Akhundzade), Kazakhstan (Amanzholova), Russia (Golovin) and Turkmenistan (Atajanov).

The meeting was chaired by Golovin, special representative of the Russian President on delimitation and demarcation of state border between Russia and neighboring CIS member states.

State Secretary, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Grigory Karasin made ​​a welcoming speech to the opening of the session. He noted the progress made by the littoral states in the negotiations on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which is designed to serve the strengthening of peace and good neighborliness, development of comprehensive cooperation of the Caspian states.

The meeting continued work to implement the decisions of the Third Caspian Sea Summit held in Baku on 18 November 2010 as well as to harmonize the provisions of the draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. The sides noted the importance of accelerating progress following the Baku summit. They discussed issues related to preparations for the Fourth Caspian Sea Summit to be held in Russia.

The sides positively assessed the results of the 29th meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group which took place in an atmosphere of friendship and understanding and made a significant contribution to achieving common agreements on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. The next meeting was agreed to be held in Astana. The date of the meeting will be agreed upon through diplomatic channels.

Source: 1news.az