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Caspian deal a step closer
By
Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - The decade-long dispute
over how to divide the oil-rich Caspian Sea may be
settled soon, claims Russia, although statements by some
Russian officials indicate that Moscow still views
itself a bit more equal than the other four littoral
nations.
The legal status of the inland sea
could be agreed "within a year", Russia's deputy foreign
minister and Caspian envoy Viktor Kalyuzhny announced on
Thursday, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the
special Caspian envoys of the five littoral states in
Baku, Azerbaijan.
The meeting between the
representatives of Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan
and Turkmenistan "opened the way towards solving the
Caspian problem", Kalyuzhny was quoted as saying by the
news agency RIA.
The other littoral states
appeared to echo Russia'’s optimism. A draft convention
on the legal status of the Caspian is now being viewed
positively by all littoral states, Azerbaijani deputy
Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said. The issue has
been contentious since the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991.
Until then, the sea's status was
regulated by treaties between the Soviet Union and Iran.
But the break-up of the Soviet Union led to the creation
of three new independent states bordering the Caspian
Sea: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. All of
those countries now seek a share of its wealth.
Naval forces
Meanwhile, Moscow has
raised fresh objections against new borders, naval
forces and underwater pipelines in the Caspian. Russia
is against setting up maritime borders in the Caspian as
it would contradict the Kremlin's idea "to share the
seabed but not the water itself", Kalyuzhny said.
Kalyuzhny also stated that Moscow no longer
supported Kazakhstan's plans to create national naval
forces, Kalyuzhny announced. No new military forces are
needed in the Caspian, he was quoted as saying by RIA.
The Russian-backed draft of the convention implies that
the Caspian Sea should become demilitarized.
However, Kazakhstan declined to accept Moscow’s
rebuttal. Kazakh deputy foreign minister Kairat
Abuseidov stated that his country needed a naval unit to
combat terrorism, the drug trade and illegal migration.
Russian objections to the Kazakh naval plans
came as a departure from Moscow's previous supportive
position. Last year, Russian officials suggested that a
joint military force, including Russia and Kazakhstan,
be created to safeguard Caspian security. Moscow also
pledged to supply Russian military hardware, including
one naval vessel, to Kazakhstan at Russia’s domestic
prices.
In August 2002, Russia held
unprecedented naval exercises in the Caspian Sea, with
the Russian Caspian flotilla's 60 vessels, some 10,000
servicemen and 30 aircraft taking part. About 3,000
Kazakh servicemen or roughly all country's naval
personnel took part in the exercises, which involved
joint action with Russia's Caspian Flotilla.
Russia's Caspian flotilla has been a force for
coastal defense and waterways patrol. Following the
division of the Soviet Caspian flotilla in 1992 between
Moscow and Baku, Russia kept three quarters of the naval
vessels and personnel based in Astrakhan.
The
Kazakh navy is based in Aktau and Atyrtau ports in the
eastern and northern parts of the Caspian. Kazakh naval
forces include some 3,000 personnel, armed with 10
imported coast guard boats and five smaller vessels.
Tehran was prohibited from having a naval force
in the Caspian Sea, according to treaties between the
USSR and Iran. However, in the wake of the Soviet
collapse, Iran has been reported to want to turn its
Caspian ports into naval bases.
Officially,
Turkmenistan has no naval forces at all. However,
Turkmenistan reportedly procured 20 patrol boats from
Ukraine. Turkmenistan has 20 Ukraine-built patrol boats,
as well as one US-built vessel. Unlike Turkmenistan,
Azerbaijan owns naval facilities in Baku as well as a
quarter of the former Soviet Caspian flotilla. However,
Russia reportedly acquired the best vessels.
No to pipelines
Apart from insisting
on its dominant military role in the Caspian, Russia
also suggests that any Caspian deal should protect
Moscow’s oil transit interests. "We view the
construction of pipelines through the Caspian
negatively," Kalyuzhny told the meeting in Baku, adding
that Russia would seek a pipeline ban as part of a
future convention on the Caspian Sea's status.
Kalyuzhny said that Moscow would seek to ban
pipelines along the bottom of the sea, an idea
detrimental to a US-backed project to send Caspian oil
to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Kalyuzhny cited
environmental reasons as the main argument for banning
pipelines.
Construction on a pipeline between
Baku and Ceyhan began last year, and the first oil is
scheduled to flow through it in 2005. The Kazakh port of
Aktau, across the sea from Baku, is to be linked to the
pipeline by an underwater line. The pipeline, which
would circumvent Russia, is backed by the US as a way to
improve access to Central Asian oil.
Caspian
dispute
According to treaties in 1921, 1940 and
1970, Iran controls just 13 percent of the Caspian sea
and is poised to benefit greatly from equal division.
After 1991, Iran suggested that the Caspian should be
divided equally, with the five littoral states each
receiving 20 percent of the sea. Russia, Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan support the so-called middle lines division
principle, which would leave Iran with the smallest part
of the Caspian.
Turkmen President Saparmurad
Niyazov is yet to change his opposition towards
bilateral Caspian deals. Moreover, Niyazov is reportedly
due to travel to Tehran on March 10, presumably to
discuss a joint position on the Caspian.
In the
wake of a series of bilateral Caspian deals between
Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, widely seen as an
alternative to an overall agreement of all five Caspian
littoral states, last October Kazakhstan floated an idea
of a trilateral agreement in the oil-rich region,
backing the Russian plan of "median line" division plan
as a "just solution".
Kazakhstan is set to
become a major beneficiary of the so-called median lines
division principle, which would leave it with the
largest part of the Caspian. Iran and Turkmenistan would
be the losers of the median lines division principle.
In recent years, there have been repeated moves
to resolve disputes over the Caspian Sea. In May 2002,
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh
counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a bilateral
agreement on how to divide the northern Caspian. The
deal implies that three hydrocarbon fields divided by
the median line, Kurmangazy, Central and Khvalynskoye,
would be exploited on parity basis. Last October, Putin
and Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliyev signed a border
agreement on defining the sea border between their
respective Caspian sections.
Defense
deals
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
traveled to Baku earlier in the week to clinch a
bilateral arms trade deal with his Azeri counterpart
Safar Abiyev. However, Ivanov pledged "not to sell
destabilizing weapons" to Azerbaijan.
Ivanov
dismissed talk of Russia’s long-standing bias in favor
of Azerbaijan’s foe, Armenia. No evidence has been found
so far relative to allegations that in 1993-1996 Russia
supplied Armenia with arms worth of US$1 billion, Ivanov
was quoted by RIA as saying.
Ivanov also met
Azeri Prime Minister Artur Rasi-Zadeh to discuss
Russia’s Gabala radar station, which is located in
Azerbaijan. Russian media outlets have speculated that
Moscow might want to use Gabala to monitor the US war on
Iraq.
However, despite improving bilateral ties,
Azerbaijan is yet to side with Russia completely. The
littoral states "are independent in issues relative to
safeguarding their security", Khalafov told journalists
in Baku.
Presumably to illustrate the country’s
independence from Russia, on February 26 an Azeri court
convicted three Azeri citizens of spying for Russia and
sentenced them to 10-11 years in prison. The men were
found guilty of providing the Russian military
intelligence with information on the deployment of
troops and military equipment in Azerbaijan. Prosecutors
also accused them of providing information on
Azerbaijan's oil pipeline routes and situation around
the Gabala radar station.
(©2003 Asia Times
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