The Ministerial meeting of 'the Caspian Five', organized to complete preparations for the 5th Caspian Summit in Kazakhstan, has just ended in Moscow.
According to the results of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, the diplomats managed to fully agree on the text of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"We concluded the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the five Caspian states, and my colleagues instructed me to acquaint you with its results. We discussed the issues on the current agenda in the Caspian Sea, paid special attention to the work on the draft Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. I can say with great satisfaction that we have achieved a result on all open issues related to the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. The text of the convention is actually ready," the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reports.
Lavrov added that in the near future, the document will be edited and translated into national languages. "Preparatory work will be carried out at a high level in each country for signing it. The document will be signed at the 5th summit of the Caspian states in Kazakhstan. We hope that the summit will take place in the first half of 2018," Lavrov added.
He noted that the date of the summit will be decided by the Kazakh leadership after the completion of the final technical and legal work on the document.
"We positively assessed interaction of the defense ministries in the Caspian Sea region. This year, actually all the littoral states have exchanged friendly visits by the navies’ ships. The Sea Cup 2017 international contest held in summer was a big success. Next year, joint drills are planned," Russia’s top diplomat said.
The ministers also agreed on the need for separate protocols for cooperation between law enforcement agencies of the 'Caspian Five' in combating poaching, terrorism and organized crime. "A draft agreement on preventing incidents in the Caspian Sea is at an advanced stage of approval. The draft is the basic document for developing a solid system of confidence-building measures in the region. We expect to submit all these documents for approval at the summit in Kazakhstan along with the draft Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea," the top diplomat said.
"As a whole, the results of the meeting are regarded as very positive. We have completed almost two decades of work on the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, this text is submitted for approval by the heads of our states, and we expect that it will be supported by them," Sergei Lavrov concluded.
