Deal on Caspian Sea's legal status to ban foreign warships entirely – Rouhani

  13 August 2018    Read: 904
Deal on Caspian Sea

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea would be effective only with the consensus of the five Caspian Sea littoral states, noting that the agreement would ban the presence of foreign warships in the world’s largest enclosed inland body of water.

“The (Caspian Sea) Convention would stipulate that all legal issues pertaining to the Caspian Sea would come into effect only with the consensus of the five Caspian Sea littoral states,” Rouhani said on Sunday morning ahead of his trip to Kazakhstan, his official website reported on August 12.

The Caspian Sea Convention determines the territorial rights of littoral states as well as other matters related to the sea.

The convention would be signed in Kazakhstan during the Fifth Caspian Summit in Aktau where representatives of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkmenistan would be present.

He added, “This convention completely bans the presence of foreign warships in this sea and this is a key issue for the national security of its littoral states”.

“Caspian Sea littoral states have very good potentials and opportunities, especially regarding economy, transportation, goods transport and tourism, which will be discussed in the summit”.

The Iranian president left Tehran for the Kazakh city of Aktau on Sunday morning to attend the summit meeting of the Caspian Sea littoral states.

Rouhani’s most important program in the two-day visit is to participate in the Caspian Sea summit in which a number of important and strategic documents for cooperation will be signed by the five countries bordering the sea.

The president will also hold bilateral meetings with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and a number of other heads of state to discuss relations.

Rouhani will return to Tehran on Sunday evening.

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed water body on earth by area, variously classed as the world’s largest lake or a full-fledged sea.


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