Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a federal law that ratifies the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, online newspaper of the Turkmenistan’s oil and gas complex reports referring to Interfax.
The Convention defines and regulates the rights and obligations of the parties with respect to the use of the Caspian Sea, including its waters, bottom, subsoil, natural resources and airspace over the sea.
Turkmenistan was the first among Caspian five to ratify the treaty. Parliament of Turkmenistan adopted a decree in December 2018. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan ratified the convention in January and February 2019, respectively. Now it comes to Iran to ratify the Convention. The Convention will enter into force once all signatories have ratified it and deposited the all five instruments of ratification.
According to the newspaper, the unresolved status of the Caspian sea has for many years been the main obstacle to the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, which envisions the delivery of natural gas from Turkmenistan via Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
The Convention was signed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on August 12, 2018. The Parties to this Convention are the Caspian littoral States – the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan.
