OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2008.   The capital of Kazakhstan, Astana hosted the 24th meeting of the Special Workgroup on the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea at the level of the foreign ministers. The Turkmen delegation specially arrived in Astana to participate in the meeting.

According to the press centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkmenistan’s position on the legal regulation of the activities in the Caspian region necessitated the solutions based on the universally recognized norms and principles of international law.

As is known the Ashgabat summit of the leaders of the littoral states in April 2002 and the Tehran summit in October 2003 considerably intensified the negotiating process on the Caspian Sea related problems.

The special concern that President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov pays to the development of international co-operation on the Caspian Sea and in the Caspian region particularly through expanding the contacts with the neighboring countries in the energy sector, transport, trade and other fields should be focused on in this context. Thus, the Turkmen leader put forward the initiative to increase the volume of railway and sea freight transportation in the region along the new routes as well.

This November Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan signed the intergovernmental agreement on direct ferry railway services between Turkmenbashi and Baku to realize these important undertakings.

At present Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation are working on the bilateral intergovernmental agreement on international railway ferry between Olia seaport near Astrakhan, Mahachkala and Turkmenbashi.

Thus, Turkmenistan demonstrates the most constructive and responsible approach to practical implementation of the agreements reached during the talks and meetings at different levels on the whole spectrum of the Caspian Sea related problems.