Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Preliminary discussion of draft agreement on Caspian Security ends

23 October 2009 17:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Lachin Sultanova â€“ APA. The first meeting devoted to the discussion of the draft agreement on mutual activity and cooperation of relevant authorities of the Caspian littoral states in the field of ensuring the security in the Caspian Sea ended, said Azerbaijanâ€™s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov at the press conference on outcomes of the meeting, APA reports. According to him, the parties agreed on many points of the draft agreement at the meeting held with the participation of deputy foreign ministers of 5 Caspian littoral states. The consultations on other issues will be continued at the second meeting in Baku next year.

Khalaf Khalafov noted that the draft agreement covered the points of combating terrorism, organized criminality, sale of drugs, illegal immigration, human trafficking, smuggling and other. According to the diplomat, there is a mutual cooperation between the Caspian littoral states and this agreement will contribute to the cooperation to develop in multilateral format.

Answering the questions, the deputy minister underlined that the convention on Caspian legal status had not been completely agreed, but the parties had reached an agreement on some issues: â€œThe Caspian littoral states signed a convention on ecology and protection of environment and this document has already come into effectâ€.

Taking stance on Turkmenistanâ€™s last statements on Caspian legal status, Khalaf Khalafov said the talks were continued despite some reports in the press: â€œWe are ready to continue the talks. I think Turkmenistan is also ready for thisâ€.