Turkmen and Russian FMs discuss upcoming Caspian summit agenda

By Trend

The agenda of the sixth Caspian Summit, to be held this year in Turkmenistan, was discussed by Rashid Meredov, Turkmen Foreign Minister and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during a meeting in Moscow on February 22, Trend reports citing Turkmenportal.

“Preparations for the sixth Caspian summit in Ashgabat are entering the finish line. We hope that this year, in hospitable Turkmenistan, we will be able to meet and make the decisions that are currently being negotiated,” Lavrov said. “We perceive the negotiation process in the same way, and I am sure that we will be able to agree on a good package of final documents.”

Originally, the sixth Caspian Summit was scheduled to take place in Turkmenistan in 2021, but it was later postponed to 2022.

The Kazakh city of Aktau hosted the 5th Summit of the Heads of State of the Caspian littoral states in August 2018, where the sides signed the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, a historic document for the region, the work on which has been carried out for two decades since 1996.

According to the document, it is possible to lay submarine cables and pipelines along the bottom of the Caspian Sea "provided that their designs comply with environmental requirements and standards enshrined in international treaties to which they are parties".

The signing of the Caspian Convention is also a significant step towards global energy security. The relevant negotiations have been conducted since 2011 between the interested parties-the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. In particular, the project of laying the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline to the shores of Azerbaijan, from where the Turkmen raw material can be delivered to Turkey and further to Europe, is being promoted.