Convention on Legal Status of Caspian Sea signed

On August 12, in Kazakhstan, the leaders of the so-called "Caspian Five" countries signed the Convention on Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan have called the deal historic.

The signatories to the Convention are the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, the Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, and the heads of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.

Vladimir Putin has called the summit of the "Caspian Five" countries an epochal meeting. According to his version, the Convention guarantees the non-presence of extra-regional powers in the Caspian Sea.

"It is important that the Convention clearly regulates the necessary delimitations, navigation and fishing regimes, fixes the principles of military-political interaction of the countries, guarantees the use of the Caspian Sea exclusively for peaceful purposes, and the non-presence of armed forces of extra-regional powers in the Sea," President Putin has stated.

Earlier, there were difficulties in defining the status of the Caspian Sea as a lake or a sea, since these water bodies are regulated by different provisions of the international law. According to Andrei Grozin, the head of the division of Central Asia and Kazakhstan at the CIS Institute, the "Caspian Five" countries have created a "certain hybrid", something in between the sea division with allocation of shelf areas, a free economic zone, a fishing zone, and as a result, "a completely unique document" has been signed, the "Interfax" reports.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 12, 2018 at 04:02 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.