Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
The signing of the Convention on the status of the Caspian sea is a historic event, Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov said at a press conference Aug. 20.
He noted that the most important factor is that this Convention has been signed by five fully independent states, which primarily take into account their own interests. "It is important that the sovereign states participated in the signing of the Convention. Nobody has been imposed upon anything. The countries settled for signing the Convention proceeding from their own interests. This is a great achievement. An international legal regime which strengthens the ties of good-neighborliness has now been established in the Caspian sea. This is a very important historic event," Bocharnikov said.
In his view, the Convention, which is of a general nature, will soon be translated into concrete projects as a result of the work of the high-level working group established by the decision of the heads of state of the Caspian region.
"It is expected that the first meeting of the high-level working group will be held before the end of 2018 in Azerbaijan. I do not know yet what projects will be developed. Perhaps one of them will be the creation of the system of cruise tourism in the Caspian sea. Both our countries and our people who want to travel are interested in this. This is still an idea, but I would like it to be implemented in a fairly short time," Bocharnikov said.
The signing ceremony of the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian sea was held on August 12 at the 5th summit of the heads of state of the Caspian countries in the Kazakh city of Aktau.
The document was signed by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani and President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
In addition, the heads of the relevant agencies of the Caspian states signed other important documents arising from this Convention – the Protocol on cooperation in the field of combating organized crime in the Caspian sea, the Agreement between the governments of the Caspian states on trade and economic cooperation, the Agreement between the governments of the Caspian states on cooperation in the field of transport, the Agreement on the prevention of incidents in the Caspian sea and the Protocol on cooperation and interaction of border agencies.