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Grigory Karasin: â€œOpen questions on the Caspian legal status are solved step by stepâ€ - INTERVIEW - EXCLUSIVE

Grigory Karasin: â€œOpen questions on the Caspian legal status are solved step by stepâ€ - <font color=red>INTERVIEW</font> - <font color=red>EXCLUSIVE</font>

23 March 2012 09:28 (UTC +04:00)

Moscow. Farid Akberov â€“ APA. Interview with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin

- After the Baku summit, there is no activeness in the Caspian status negotiations. What does cause it?

- I donâ€™t think so. After the 3rd Caspian Summit held in Baku on November 18, 2010, the special working group on elaboration of the Convention on the Caspian legal status held three meetings last year in the level of the deputy foreign ministers: April, Baku; July, Moscow and November, Astana. We are negotiating the fulfillment of the summit decision on preparing mechanism for the implementation of moratorium on sturgeon fishing. The representatives of the fishing industries of the Caspian states held meetings in Astana, Astrakhan and Baku last year to discuss the draft agreement on protection of sturgeon resources in the Caspian Sea. It means that there is an intensive work.

- What issues were agreed and what questions remain open?

- We have reached mutual understanding on major cooperation issue on the Caspian Sea. Only the Caspian littoral states have sovereign rights in the inland basin and therefore only they together can solve all important issues concerning the sea. Now the sides are working on the draft Convention on the Caspian legal status. The document should be adopted by the five littoral states through the consensus. There are some open questions, but are solved step by step, constructive atmosphere enabling the experts to work on the Conventionâ€™s points attentively and accurately. The littoral states signed a series of documents describing rules of cooperation during the three summits before the adoption of the convention. The process of creating international legal basis for the Caspian cooperation has also been intensified recently. The security cooperation agreement signed in Baku, 2010 have been already ratified by three countries. Last year the sides signed framework agreement on protection of the sea environment and protocol on regional response and cooperation for the prevention of oil pollution risks.

-Do you discuss the right of passage of warships through the sovereign area?

- Now the legal status of the Caspian Sea is regulated by the Soviet-Iranian treaties of 1921 and 1940. According to these treaties, there are 10-mile zones in the Caspian Sea and the coastal country has the exclusive right to fish there. All ships of the Caspian littoral countries use free navigation in this area. During the negotiations on a new legal status of the Caspian Sea, all delimitation options, including determination of the zones where the sovereignty of coastal countries is implemented, are being discussed. The state of such zones should be similar to the state of the territorial sea, which includes the right of peaceful passage for the all types of ships of the Caspian littoral countries.

-When the next summit of the Caspian littoral countries will be held?

- The 4th Caspian Summit will be held in the Russian Federation, the heads of state agreed at the meeting in Baku in November, 2010. The summit will be scheduled through diplomatic channels in accordance with the working schedules of the Presidents of five countries, as well as the state of the fulfillment of instructions given by them in Baku.

-When the Working Group on the Caspian status will meet?

-The next meeting of the Working Group on the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea will be held in Ashgabat in the second half of this year.