Caspian international economic forum to open in Moscow

MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) - An international economic forum
Caspian Dialogue-2011 will open here on Monday.
High on the agenda of the forum will be "the policy of the Caspian
regional countries in the mineral resources and the Caspian legal status,"
the forum organizing committee said. Alongside, the forum is planning to
discuss "the development of the regional transport infrastructure, the
construction of energy-efficient houses, information technologies, the
development of the fishery industry and the restoration of biological
diversity."
The forum will be held under the support from the Russian Foreign
Ministry, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, the Russian
Academy of Sciences. The forum will bring together public servants,
diplomats, scientists and experts from the Caspian littoral states, the
CIS and European countries.
Russian presidential envoy for delimitation and demarcation of the
Russian border with neighboring CIS countries Alexander Golovin, the
deputy chief of the Russian Fisheries Agency Alexander Fomin, Iranian
Ambassador in Russia Seyyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi, officials from Russian
and foreign oil and gas companies and associations, including Lukoil,
Gazprom Zarubezhneftegaz and others were invited to attend the forum.
A Caspian energy forum will be a separate event. The forum will
discuss the prospecting, production and supplies of hydrocarbons and
electric power from the region and joint projects in this sphere.
An unclear legal status of the Caspian Sea remains one of the major
problems in the relations between the Caspian littoral states (Russia,
Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan). The Caspian littoral
states agreed that a Caspian legal status convention should be signed,
because the lack of a clear Caspian legal status hampers the energy
projects and prompts the Caspian littoral states to redirect their energy
exports to Asia, primarily to China.
Unless the convention enters into force the 1921 and 1940
Soviet-Iranian agreements remain in effect. The agreements set the rules
for a free navigation and fishing, but do not regulate the issues of
subsoil use and environment protection.
Meanwhile, the bilateral agreements are in effect between Russia,
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Under the agreements the Caspian Sea bottom and
mineral resources are subjected to delimitation (on the median line
principle) and the water surface remains in common use.
Alongside, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on
the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea in 2003. The
trilateral agreement determined the legal status of more than 60% of
natural resources in the Caspian Sea.
The 3rd Caspian summit was a breakthrough in November 2010. The
Caspian littoral countries agreed that the Caspian legal status
negotiations should be accelerated and a Caspian legal status convention
should be ready for signing by a next Caspian summit in Russia.
In this respect, the leaders of the Caspian littoral countries decided
to instruct the agencies concerned to discuss within three months and
agree on the width of national maritime zones to 24-25 nautical miles,
including the water space (the second disputable issue is the rules to ban
sturgeon fishing), after that an expert working group was to have a
meeting.
These deadlines were broken and the experts are negotiating new
deadlines.
The legal status of the Caspian Sea should be determined not only to
divide the water space, delimitate the sea state borders, but also to
establish a good economic cooperation, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
noted.