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Sergei Lavrov: â€œThe idea of establishing Caspian Economic Cooperation Organization is very topicalâ€

14 April 2009 11:30 (UTC +04:00)

Lavrov said holding such a meeting would play the role of an important addition to the third summit of littoral states in Baku.

Assessing the prospects to coordinate the draft Convention on the legal status of the Caspian, Sergey Lavrov said there still were issues to be coordinated.
â€œBut the relations of foreign ministers of the Caspian states create impression that the participants of the negotiations are close to reach mutual understanding on open issues. Such issues are first of all connected with the delimitation of the Caspian aquatorium and delimitation of the southern part of the bottom. I hope joint efforts will accelerate complete coordination of the whole text of the draft Convention.

In his opinion, the Declaration, signed by the leaders of Caspian littoral states in Tehran on October 16, 2007, has a special place among the results. â€œThis Declaration has a special importance for evaluation of cooperation in the Caspian region, peace and good neighborhood. The Declaration can be considered as the logistic result of political behavior rules demonstrated toward the elaboration and ratification of the Caspian legal statusâ€.

Sergei Lavrov reminded about the conference of vise prime ministers and relevant ministers of the Caspian littoral states in Astrakhan last October. â€œThe Astrakhan conference showed that the Caspian economic-trade relationship has large potential. It was increased as a result of extension of bilateral cooperation and I think the idea of establishing the Caspian Economic Cooperation Organization proposed at the Tehran Summit is very topical. Such organization could have positive impact on actualization of the regional economic relations and development of mutual cooperation formats. The parts can elaborate concrete proposals on the establishing of this organization within the preparations to Baku Summitâ€.