Cooperation on Caspian Sea: principles, aims and priorities

10 years ago, The Framework Convention on the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea (also called Tehran convention) came into force on August 12, 2006. This day was declared by five Caspian littoral states the “Day of Caspian Sea.”

Annually on August 12, many events are conducted in Turkmenistan in honour of this date. This year the scientific-practical conference “25th Anniversary of Independence of Turkmenistan: Achievements in protection of marine environment of the Caspian Sea,” dedicated to the ecology of the Caspian sea, as well as within the framework of the conference children’s contest on best pictures and photos on Caspian topic were held in National tourist zone “Avaza.”

It is noteworthy, since getting its independence and starting active participation in the multilateral dialogue on Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan has taken a course on building up equal and mutually beneficial negotiation processes on the Caspian Sea matters.

In this regard, it is worth to recall the first meeting of the Heads of five Caspian Sea littoral states in 2002 in Ashgabat, which laid the systematic basis for long-term five-sided cooperation and gave a strong impetus to the first substantive interaction among states in various fields of the Caspian Sea dialogue.

Since Ashgabat high-level meeting, a great deal of joint work was done on practical implementation of all major issues of cooperation in the Caspian Sea by five littoral states.

 

Defining feature of this process is the understanding of the fact that the multilateral dialogue on Caspian Sea matter should be conducted taking into account the interests of all its participants, based on principles of equality and mutual respect. This allows gradually moving towards the mutually acceptable decision-makings, finding out concrete results and agreements.

Turkmenistan has long maintained that Caspian Sea basin – unique, archetype of interaction of the states and nations, its traditions, cultures and spiritual values. Nowadays, a geostrategic centre of global importance is forming up here that includes crucially important energy, transport and communication links.

Therefore, the main goals and objectives have become more today actual, especially in light of the joint efforts of countries in the region, their close cooperation with the international organizations based on awareness of community and integrity.

Five-sided cooperation in the Caspian Sea is the unifying factor, which reflects the desire of countries for peace, harmony and cooperation. In addition, any issues should be discussed in the atmosphere of good neighbourliness and close partnership relations.

The work on preparation of the main document – draft Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea goes on a positive note.

The sides managed to reach a consensus on key substantive issues on its agenda. Overall aim of the document is the mutual aspiration and effective coordination of the sides to make the Caspian Sea – the area of peace and cooperation that is the important component of the international strategic stability and security.

Turkmenistan pays a great attention to cooperation on Caspian Sea in specific areas. As is known, our country has proposed to work out the Agreement on the conservation and rational use of marine biological resources of the Caspian Sea.

Turkmenistan believes that the solution of the conservation of bio-resources should be carried out on a systematic basis, through new, clearly defined international legal mechanisms that would, inter alia, reflect the restrictive measures to harvest the most valuable fish species.

Harmonization of mutual relations in this sphere, forming up effective institutionalized basis for cooperation that corresponds to the generally accepted international practice that is aimed to create within the framework of Agreement on coordination body – Commission on marine biological resources of the Caspian Sea. 

Turkmenistan has initiated and developed a draft of another important document – the Agreement on cooperation in the field of prevention and liquidation of emergency situations in the Caspian Sea. Caspian Sea is a zone of increased potential risks of natural and manmade threat to the ecological system of the sea. Therefore, the creation of effective multilateral mechanisms of cooperation to prevent and neutralize emergency situations is of paramount importance.

As is known, Turkmenistan was the chair of the Coordinating Committee on Hydrometeorology and Pollution Monitoring of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM) for 2013-2014 years. Turkmenistan took a very responsible attitude to its Chairmanship and still believes that working together through CASPCOM is an important part of our overall effort to preserve the unique natural heritage of the Caspian Sea. In this context, it is noteworthy to mention the signing of the Agreement on cooperation in the field of hydrometeorology of the Caspian Sea, aimed to give the systemic focus of the Caspian states in this area.

Today, the Caspian Sea basin plays a major role as the transport hub. This is the strategic direction that offers the prospect of substantially increased trade-economic relations both between the littoral countries, and in terms of their access to world markets.

It is obvious that the transport component of interaction requires a solid legal base. Taking into account the importance of mutual integration of the transport systems of the Caspian countries, to ensure coordination of multimodal transport at the regional level, the President of Turkmenistan acted with important initiative to work out the Agreement on cooperation in the transport sphere of the Caspian Sea, and to create the Caspian regional transport and logistic Centre as one of the elements of the practical implementation of such cooperation.

The Caspian Sea basin is rapidly emerging as one of the world’s largest centres of production and transportation of hydrocarbons. This is an objective reality, which requires adequate perception. Turkmenistan is convinced that cooperation between the Caspian states in the energy sector is a highly promising matter, able to give a strong impetus to regional and international development and investment activity, and a positive influence on the geopolitical situation in this part of the globe.

The important issue that goes far beyond the regional framework - preservation of natural resources of the Caspian Sea. The unique biological complex of the reservoir itself, its coastal areas - is, without any exaggeration is the heritage of humankind and therefore it requires a special, focused attention of the international community.

        Delivering a speech at the United Nations Global Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012, the President of Turkmenistan emphasized that "Our common goal - to combine objective economic interests and realities of international cooperation in the energy sphere with the need to preserve biodiversity of the Caspian Sea without disrupting its fragile environmental balance." In this regard, our country reasonably counts on comprehensive cooperation of the United Nations and its specialized agencies.

        Turkmenistan considers cooperation in the Caspian Sea as part of the continental and global tendencies, in which effective development of political, trade-economic, cultural-humanitarian relations is integral from ensuring stability and security basis, implementation of sustainable development goals, preservation of the environment, introduction of high-technological production methods.

         In this sense, the Caspian states have vast opportunities for fruitful cooperation for short and long term. Our country is ready for this work, convinced that the accumulated experience of cooperation, centuries-old traditions of good-neighborliness in the Caspian Sea should be kept througly, popularized and passed on to future generations. Caspian Sea Day, marked on August Day 12 is designed to fill this process with new content and give a new creative impulse to it.

 

                                                                                                                                                                      Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.