Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 19
Trend:
Azerbaijan is sure that all issues of the Caspian Sea legal status must be resolved in a spirit of respect for littoral states’ sovereign rights and mutually beneficial partnership, said Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in his article published by the official press.
He also pointed to the importance of strengthening the trust between the parties, in particular, on issues related to regional stability, security and economic and scientific-research activities in the Caspian basin in settling the sea’s legal status issues.
Confidence-building measures must also include the provision of equal security conditions for all Caspian states, noted the minister.
“We are also convinced that strengthening of stability in the Caspian Sea should rest upon consideration of interests of all parties, not inflicting damage to each other’s security, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Independence of the Caspian states should be respected and non-interference in the internal affairs of each other must be ensured,” he said.
“We share a common vision of the Caspian countries on the current state of Caspian Sea environment and we are interested in expanding cooperation for addressing environmental problems of the sea,” the minister added.
A great work has been carried out to coordinate the provisions of the draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, the minister added.
According to him, the adopted political decisions and agreements reached during the summits of the Caspian states’ heads make future negotiations on the draft convention more efficient.
Foreign minister said the Caspian Sea is a significant part of many international and regional projects aimed at economic development and well-being of people in the countries of the Caspian region, as well as ensuring global energy security.
Priorities of the Caspian states include the issues related to strengthening of international cooperation, improving the investment situation in extraction and production of energy resources and supplying them to international markets, establishing dependable and secure relations, attraction of environmentally friendly and profitable technologies, stated the minister.