Baku hosted 44th session of Ad Hoc Group on development of Caspian Sea’s Legal Status Convention

Delegations from the Republic of Azerbaijan (headed by Kh. Khalafov), the Islamic Republic of Iran (headed by E. Rahimpour), the Republic of Kazakhstan (headed by Z. Amanzholova), the Russian Federation (headed by I. Bratchikov), Turkmenistan (headed by M. Atadzhanov) attended the event.

Chairman of the session Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Kh. Khalafov in his opening speech noted the progress in negotiation process and stressed that regular meetings of the Heads of State and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Caspian countries created necessary conditions for significant convergence of standpoints and achievement of concrete results. He expressed confidence that ongoing efforts would allow to reach consensus on all provisions of the draft Convention.

A number of important provisions and articles of the draft Convention, including that concerning the sovereignty, exercising of sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the parties in the Caspian Sea were agreed during the session.

The delegations positively assessed the results of the talks and expressed gratitude to the Republic of Azerbaijan for a high level of organizational part of the meeting.

The next session of the Ad Hoc Group will be held in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The meeting’s dates will be agreed through the diplomatic channels.

Source: www.mfa.gov.kz