Lavrov names main achievement of Convention on Legal Status of Caspian

The main achievement of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea was that all the five Caspian states have clearly confirmed their responsibility for everything taking place on the sea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"The Caspian Summit held in Aktau has completed the more than 20 years of work on the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. It was necessary to do this primarily so as to make the best possible use of the benefits of the Caspian Sea, that is, its energy and biological resources as well as transport routes,"the diplomat said in the interview with Khabar Agency.

Lavrov explained that states that are not parties to this convention are invited to cooperate with the five littoral states on the conditions coordinated in the convention.

The top Russian foreign minister also noted that the five states have coordinated the criteria for discussing the subjects related to the delineation of their sovereign and fishing zones, which is a very "important achievement".

Lavrov added that the parties have also mapped out their activities in the area of ecology and conservation, plus the conditions of economic operation that will be beneficial and environmentally safe.

"I believe that this convention will give a powerful boost to the development of cooperation between the Caspian states in the economy, the ecology and the conservation of the sea’s biological resources for the future generations. In other words, the signing of the convention was a major success of the summit," the Russian Foreign minister stressed.