Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 10
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
It is expected that the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian sea will be signed during the 5th summit of the heads of the Caspian states in Aktau on August 12, the "Neutral Turkmenistan" newspaper wrote Aug. 9.
The work on multilateral documents, on which the solution of the environmental and economic problems of the Caspian sea depends, will continue in Aktau, the message says.
Turkmenistan once initiated the first summit of the heads of the Caspian states, which was held in 2002 in Ashgabat.
"Our country took an active part in the subsequent high-level meetings, contributing to the development and promotion of five-party agreements in the field of environmental protection, shipping, fishing, rational use of biological resources of the Caspian sea", the newspaper wrote.
An initiative to develop an agreement on cooperation in the field of emergency prevention and response, as well as an agreement on the conservation and rational use of biological resources was put forward at the third summit held in November 2010 in Baku.
The Turkmen side prepared drafts of these documents. An agreement on cooperation in the field of security was signed in Baku, which was ratified by the Caspian states and entered into force in 2014.
A proposal to prepare a draft agreement on trade and economic cooperation between the Caspian states and to establish a permanent Caspian economic forum was made at the 4th summit, held in September 2014 in Astrakhan.
Ashgabat also initiated work over an agreement on cooperation in the field of transport and announced a proposal to establish a Caspian regional transport and logistics center. Ashgabat held several working meetings to reconcile the drafts of these documents during 2016-2017.
The Turkmen side also initiated the development of two protocols – on the safety of navigation and on the fight against poaching, to be attached to the agreement in the sphere of security in the Caspian sea.