CASPIAN BREAKTHROUGH

The fourth summit of the Caspian states, attended by the Presidents of Azerbaijan - Ilham Aliyev; the Russian Federation - Vladimir Putin; Iran - Hassan Rouhani; Kazakhstan - Nursultan Nazarbayev and Turkme-nistan - Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was held in Astrakhan on 29 September. The summit was held in an atmosphere of constructive dialogue and was so productive that some participants described it as a "breakthrough".

Speaking at the summit, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also highly praised the results achieved there, linking them with the high degree of organized preparation by the host country, Russia. Speaking about security, he said: "We believe that the presence of the armed forces of the sides and military activity in the Caspian should be carried out on the basis of the principle of providing equal security conditions for all the Caspian states. This will help to strengthen mutual trust between the states of the region. The Caspian Sea must continue to remain a zone of peace, friendship, cooperation and neighbourliness."

Ilham Aliyev drew the attention of the participants in the summit to the threat to regional security, the source of which is Armenia's aggressive policy towards Azerbaijan. This is not rhetoric: it is a fact. Azerbaijan is the only country in the Caspian basin whose territory remains under occupation despite UN Security Council decisions. Baku has neighbourly relations of partnership with all the other neighbours.

The Azerbaijani leader provided specific examples of cooperation. "Companies from Iran and Russia are successfully taking part as investors in developing oil and gas resources in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian. Azerbaijan is effecting the transit of oil and petroleum products via its territory for companies from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. There are also good prospects in the sphere of electricity and transport within the context of trilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia," he said. Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan is implementing major projects which may also be of interest to its Caspian partners. For example, the ferry terminal of a new complex of the Baku international maritime commercial port was commissioned recently.  A new shipyard capable of producing all types of vessels in line with the highest world standards has begun operating. 

The Azerbaijani president spoke in favour of national zones 25 nautical miles in width including waterways covered by the sovereignty of the littoral countries. He also noted that "…we believe that the generally accepted principle of a median line as the basic norm of demarcation of the sea bed is inviolable and we attach great importance to questions of navigation, free access and transit from the Caspian to other seas".

A political statement by the presidents at the end of the summit says that a Convention on the legal status of the Caspian is due to be adopted in Kazakhstan in 2015 and the document, which consists of 19 articles, thus far outlines the basic principles and rules of activity of all five states on the sea. The leaders of the "Caspian Five" have agreed not to permit the military presence of non-regional states in the Caspian. They spoke in favour of "ensuring a stable balance of arms of the Caspian states, developing military construction insofar as is reasonably satisfactory based on the interests of all the sides and observing agreed measures of trust in the sphere of military activity in a spirit of predictability and transparency in accordance with common efforts to strengthen regional security and stability".

The statement points out that "each side has national sovereignty over littoral maritime space within the limits of 15 nautical miles and exclusive rights for the production of biological water resources within the 10 nautical miles adjacent to it, beyond which lies common water space", with the proviso that the application of the means for defining the baselines for this will be agreed at a later date. The Caspian seabed and its subsoil will be divided on the basis of the generally recognized principles and norms of international law "with the purpose of the implementation of the sovereign rights of the parties to subsurface management and other legitimate economic activity linked with the development of the seabed and its subsoil, by agreement with the parties".

In the presence of the heads of state, the heads of the relevant departments signed an Agreement on cooperation in the field of the hydrometeorology of the Caspian Sea, an Agreement on cooperation in the field of preventing and eliminating the consequences of emergency situations in the Caspian Sea and an Agreement on the protection of biological water resources of the Caspian Sea and their rational use.

After their talks in the Astrakhan Kremlin, the presidents strolled along the Volga Embankment and released sturgeon fry into the river. The purpose of this symbolic ceremony was to demonstrate the importance which the presidents of the "Caspian Five" attach to the protection of the bioresources of the Caspian and its main wealth - the sturgeon.

The positive outcome of the Astrakhan summit should not be perceived as an absence of unsolved problems and differences. For example, substantial differences remain not only on such a difficult subject as trans-Caspian pipelines, but also the question of dividing the bed of the Caspian in its southern part, which are being aggravated by the special position of Iran and, in some measure, Turkmenistan.

The four post-Soviet countries - Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - are in favour of the implementation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in relation to the Caspian. The differences between Baku and Ashgabat lie in the fact that on the division of the sea bed Turkmenistan insists on excluding the Abseron Peninsula, which protrudes deep into the sea, and Cilov (formerly Jiloy) Island when drawing the median line. This would give Ashgabat grounds for its claims not only to the disputed Kapaz (Sardar) field, but even the Azeri-Chirag (Azari-Ciraq) block being developed by Azerbaijan, and also the long-term Sarq field.

To back up its claims the Turkmens refer to an article on a "special circumstance" contained in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. But how reasonable is it to regard as "a special circumstance" the Abseron Peninsula which covers 2,000 square kilometres and has a population of nearly 3 million or Cilov Island, which is 6 sq km, which contains a village of a few hundred houses, with a social and industrial infrastructure? After all, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea perceives as a "special circumstance" uninhabited rocky islands, atolls or tongues of sand that protrude deep into the sea. So, most experts on the law of the sea believe it is wrong to project this circumstance as a subject of dispute between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Caspian.

The position of Iran, which insists on dividing the sea into five different parts and demands a 20-per cent share for itself, has no rational basis whatsoever. Because going by such logic one could hypothetically suggest that if some new state formation appeared on the shores of the Caspian then the Caspian would have to be re-divided into six or seven different parts. Iran's position refers to an abstract "fairness" of an equal 20-per cent share and takes out of context such realities as the configuration of the sea, the length of the coastline and so on. At the meeting in Astrakhan the Iranians insisted on personal full jurisdiction, i.e. recognition as its national zone of part of the Caspian along the line Astara-Hassanqoli, which was controlled by Tehran before the collapse of the USSR. But in that case Iran should be excluded from participation in the division of the Soviet part of the Caspian and the question should be resolved exclusively by the post-Soviet states. But if Tehran lays claims to the waterway and shelf outside its own traditional zone, then the agreed principles and rules of the division of the shelf along the median line in accordance with the norms of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea must be adhered to.

As we have seen, there are quite a number of unresolved problems and the authorized representatives of the states on the problems of the Caspian in the shape of deputy ministers and experts have much work to do. It would be expedient for Baku to have an intensive dialogue with Ashgabat and Tehran on the controversial issues so that the long-awaited convention can be signed at the next summit of the "Caspian Five", which is due to be held in Aktau in a year's time. 

In Astrakhan President Ilham Aliyev had useful meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and also the Presidents of IRI, Hassan Rouhani, and Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

During the Caspian summit in Astrakhan Russia and Azerbaijan signed a most important agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investments. The document was drawn up by Moscow and Baku for a period of 14 years and provides an opportunity for the qualitative broadening of inter-state cooperation. This agreement creates conditions for the transfer of trade-and-economic relations between the two countries to a basically different, higher level. It also opens up prospects for the joint implementation of large-scale investment projects for the production of hydrocarbon resources on the Caspian shelf and in third countries.

The constructive cooperation between the "troika" of Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and their achievement in reaching agreement on a demarcation of interests on the ocean shelf is also a fine example for finding a compromise solution to controversial issues regarding the southern part of the Caspian.