"Caspian settlement especially important now"

Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large Igor Bratchikov said that the Caspian settlement is especially important in conditions of proximity of crisis centers and zones of instability to the Caspian Sea.

"I would like to emphasize that the Caspian settlement is especially important now, in the context of increasing global turbulence in international relations, proximity of crisis centers and zones of instability to the Caspian," he said.

Bratchikov also drew attention to the fact that the clarification of the limits of the spread of sovereignty, sovereign rights, as well as the jurisdiction of litoral states in the Caspian will help to strengthen stability and predictability in relations between Russia and its partners in the Caspian and create favorable conditions for expanding mutually beneficial cooperation between the five countries.

In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large noted that this agreement establishes the fundamental military-political principles of interaction between the five countries, namely: using the Caspian for peaceful purposes, solving all issues by peaceful means, non-damage to each other’s security, complying with agreed confidence-building measures, the non-presence in the Caspian of armed forces that do not belong to the parties, and non presenting territories for aggression and other military operations against any side.

The State Duma ratified the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea on September 19. The senators plan to ratify the Convention on September 25.

The chief researcher at the Center for the Study of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Urals-Volga Region of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Stanislav Pritchin, speaking to the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that, first of all, the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea was adopted in order to establish clear rules and security obligations of the Caspian states. "The Convention has the highest status in terms of international agreements, because it regulates the entire corpus of Caspian issues," he said in the first place.

"In the current situation, when the tension around Iran is growing, when the United States is trying to shake the situation and involve regional players in the geopolitical confrontation by all means, the Convention is a very important document guaranteeing that the Caspian states will not be involved in this confrontation. The Convention prohibits to participate in the aggression of third countries against partners under an agreement," Stanislav Pritchin emphasized.

Political analyst Pavel Klachkov expressed similar position. "I think Bratchikov is right in many ways. Indeed, this region is greatly influenced by the situation both in the Middle East and in neighboring regions - everywhere there are hotbeds of real and potential threats to the Caspian littoral states, including Russia. Therefore, the Convention is very important as a document on the basis of which it is possible to formulate a security policy in the Caspian. For Russia, it is a strategically important region, because we cannot allow instability zones to our borders, which means we should monitor the situation and seek security guarantees in the Caspian," he said.

Pavel Klachkov noted that within the framework of Caspian cooperation, the potential for developing economic ties remains high. "We need to intensify efforts in the economic sphere in the Caspian region in order to become a truly major player. We need strong allies, especially in the event of a worsening of U.S.-Iran relations, which means that the more economic projects link Russia with other Caspian states, attempts to enter the region will be more risky for our opponents," the expert concluded.