15 June 2004 16:40
Moscow daily sees Caspian accord threatened by naval build-up
A Russian newspaper has said the five Caspian littoral states failed to harmonize their positions at talks in
Kazakhstan which ended on 10 June. It said the issue of pipelines on the seabed remained unresolved and that the
build-up of naval forces had "complicated" the problem. The following is text of report by Yelena Baykova
entitled "Caspian arms itself to the teeth. Region's states accuse one another of flexing muscles and demand
mechanism to forestall militarization" published by Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 11 June; subheadings
inserted editorially:
A two-day conference in Astana, where special representatives have been drafting a convention on the status of the
Caspian Sea, ended yesterday [10 June]. On the threshold of the second summit involving the heads of Caspian littoral
states in Tehran, the deputy foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan gathered for
another attempt to reach a compromise over the demarcation of the Caspian Sea bed and waters.
However, it seems that the Caspian "Five's" representatives have not managed to harmonize their
positions on this occasion either. Whereas Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia have already been able to agree to divide
up the sea bed along the median line whilst guaranteeing free movement of shipping, Iran continues to insist on an equal
sharing arrangement.
Seabed pipelines' issue unresolved
The issue of laying pipelines along the sea bed also remains unresolved to date. Russia continues to insist that this
requires the agreement of all five Caspian littoral states. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, for their part,
consider that all that is required for pipeline-laying is the agreement of the country whose zone they cross.
"Getting all the Caspian littoral states to approve the results of an ecological audit of such projects is a
complex and lengthy process," Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev stated at the opening of the session in
Astana. "This goes against the economic interests of the countries involved."
Build-up of naval forces
The solution of the problem is made complicated by the fact that the Caspian littoral states, which a year ago were
advocating the need for demilitarization, are still building up their naval forces in the Caspian basin. "If we
take demilitarization to mean disarmament, it is an unrealizable objective," Tokayev stated. Russia, too, holds a
similar view: This was voiced just last week at the "Caspian Oil and Gas" conference in Baku by Viktor
Kalyuzhnyy, the Russian Federation president's special representative for the Caspian region, who remarked that he
does not consider that the issue of demilitarizing the Caspian has, as yet, come to a head.
At the same time both these countries [Kazakhstan and Russia] are proclaiming the need to determine their positions
vis-a-vis the balance of forces at sea. For this purpose the Kazakh foreign minister has proposed creating a five-party
mechanism for arms control in the Caspian.
US military aid
This proposal is timely also for the reason that the resource-rich Caspian has begun to fall more and more frequently
within the West's zone of geopolitical and economic interests, primarily that of the United States, which is
supplying military aid to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. The strengthening of America's position is
cause for concern for the other two Caspian "players" - Russia and Iran. Tehran has repeatedly objected to
joint Azerbaijani-US military exercises that are conducted under the auspices of the war on terrorism. A more loyal
stance is that being taken by Russia. "It is an essential process of collaboration which is needed at the present
time," Viktor Kalyuzhnyy commented at the Baku conference. "Now that the world has realized that terrorism
knows no boundaries, any alliance around this issue is useful."
[Nezavisimaya Gazeta] |
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