In mid-August, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea at the summit in Aktau. Work on the document was conducted since the emergence of new subjects of international law after the collapse of the USSR raised the issue of delimitation of the Caspian Sea. This week, Special Representative of the Russian president for humanitarian and economic cooperation with the Caspian countries Ramazan Abdulatipov held a panel session on the results of the summit. The meeting was attended by employees of relevant ministries, employees of the diplomatic corps, as well as representatives of the expert community.
"The signing of the Convention should force Russia and our partners to work more effectively and cooperate more fully in this region in the interests of the peoples and citizens of these countries. There are people with rich traditional cultures living in this region, and we do not use this humanitarian and cultural potential sufficiently," Ramazan Abdulatipov said
"The Convention is the working document which will be further developed. The principles on the basis of which the boundaries of the zones can be defined on a bilateral basis were established. I have estimated the investments in such a project and how many jobs can be created in this region thanks to the implementation of the North-South transport route project. According to my calculations, about 200,000 jobs can be created. The approximate cost of such a project is about 4 billion. But they do not have to be invested immediately," diplomat Boris Zenkov said.
"We very much hope that the state program for the development of science and technology, the agreements, which we will sign, as well as existing agreements with countries, will stimulate observation, monitoring and water analysis. All five countries have training bases for such specialists. Therefore, joint programs, especially the master's degree programs would enrich our specialists," the director of the International Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Igor Ganshin, believes.
Environmental safety has become one of the most important points of the signed agreement. "Before launching large-scale projects, we must conduct an environmental impact assessment - in order to detect the effect of a project on neighboring countries. It is another key component of strengthening confidence-building measures in the Caspian," the director of the International Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment of the Russian Federation, Nuritdin Imamov, noted.
