Russia Cautions EU to Stay Away from Caspian Sea Issues

Russia warned foreign parties, including the European Union, to stay away from the Caspian Sea issues, stressing that it is “unacceptable” to take a decision on the status of the sea without taking into account the views of all the littoral states.

“The decision that is taken without regard to the views of all the Caspian states on how to use the Caspian Sea, and what is more with the Union, in this case, the European Union, which is located far away from these places – is unacceptable,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, speaking at the state University in the capital of Armenia on Monday.

The minister said Russia believes that there is every reason to five Caspian states decide on the status of the Caspian Sea without anyone’s tips and no one’s quite provocative actions.

Lavrov raised the issue while commenting on the desire of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the EU to build a trans-Caspian gas pipeline without heeding the other Caspian countries’ opinions.

The EU signed a contract with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to lay a 300-kilometer gas pipeline under Caspian Sea waters to transfer the region’s gas to Turkey and then to Europe while ignoring Iran and Russia.

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

Caspian Sea littoral states consist of Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. They have been debating their share in the Caspian Sea legal regime since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Caspian Sea legal regime is based on two agreements signed between Iran and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1921 and 1940. Although under the international law, no state can defy any agreements, which came into being before its establishment, the three new littoral states, established after the collapse of the Soviet Union, do not recognize the prior treaties, triggering a debate on the future status of the sea.