EU talks on the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline were initiated without taking the existing legal and geopolitical situation in the Caspian region into account. Valery Yazev, Vice-Speaker of the Russian Parliament and President of the Russian Gas Community, commented on the issue for the United Russia website.
Caspian states agreed that all the main issues of the Caspian Sea need to be resolved by the coastal states. The principle was fixed in the declaration signed by the heads of the Caspian states at the Second Caspian Summit in Tehran on October 16, 2007. It was later confirmed at the Third Caspian Summit in Baku on November 18, 2010, he noted.
Construction of the pipeline will be held in line with the high seismological risks. Any damage to the environment would affect all states. The EU is far from the area and does not bother about the risks.
Yazev noted that the Caspian states have a system of agreements they use for cooperation. Decisions made on such projects need to be made by the 5 Caspian states. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has the same point of view.
The international status of the Caspian Sea has not been determined yet. It has always been an interior sea of the Soviet Union, despite part of it being a coast of Iran. The two states had an agreement. Building the Trans-Caspian pipeline is impossible under this condition, the expert said.
