Russia, Moscow, Nov. 10 / Trend special corr. S.Aliyev /
The Caspian region is a huge geo-strategic area, which will determine the situation in the entire Eurasian region in the future, Alexey Vlasov, the director of the Post-Soviet Studies Center at the Moscow State University, a member of the Trend Expert Council, said at a roundtable "Caspian agenda on the eve of the Caspian countries' third summit" in Moscow today.
Vlasov said that the issues of the Caspian cooperation should be solved primarily at the level of the Caspian Five. "The Caspian countries should determine the agenda and then attract other parties to the negotiations."
Vlasov thinks that the Caspian countries should create environmental and other standards for their implementation.
Sergei Mikheyev, Director General of the Caspian Cooperation Institute, vice-president of the Center for Political Technologies, said that a five-sided format is required for harmonious complex cooperation among the Caspian countries. He thinks that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the Caspian Sea issues. There are information resources covering and dealing with these issues because this issue is of great importance.
Baku will host the summit of Caspian littoral countries November 18. An agreement on cooperation in security in the Caspian Sea is expected to be signed at the Baku summit.
On Nov. 3-4, Baku hosted the fourth meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of the five Caspian littoral countries to coordinate a draft agreement on security cooperation in the Caspian Sea.
In November 2003, the Caspian countries signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea.
In July 1998, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use.