Azerbaijan, Russia hold consultations on Caspian Sea issues

Azerbaijan and Russia held the Baku-initiated consultations over issues related to the Caspian Sea on June 17, Trend reported.

The deputy foreign minister and the Azerbaijani president’s special representative for the border and the Caspian Sea issues, Khalaf Khalafov, represented Azerbaijan at the consultations. Russia was represented by the Russian Foreign Ministry ambassador-at-large, the Russian president’s special representative for the delimitation and demarcation of the Russian state border with the CIS member states, Mikhail Petrakov.

At the consultations, the sides focused on the implementation of the convention on the Caspian Sea’s legal status, measures over the preparations for the next Caspian Sea summit at the level of heads of state, draft agreements between the Caspian littoral states, cooperation in the areas which are currently at the stage of the agreement.

The officials widely discussed the issues on the agenda and the holding of the next high-level Caspian Sea. working group meeting.

The legal status of the Caspian Sea was finally established in 2018. The Caspian Sea littoral states adopted a convention on the Caspian Sea status at the Aktau summit in August 2018.  Due to the very rich resources in it (gas and oil), coastal states had problems to reach compromise. Despite signing the convention of 2018 it is not in force yet, due to the protracted process of ratification by Iran.