The legal status of the Caspian Sea in the system of contemporary international relations

Abstract. This article analyzes current situation of the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

The article focuses on the resources of the Caspian Sea, as well as discusses the history of the legal status and solutions of geopolitical issues in accordance with international law. Furthermore, was paid attention to activities of regional countries to the issues of saving natural resources of the Caspian Sea in accordance with international law, and also to the problems of preservation and protection of biological diversity of the sea and to activities of appropriate use of natural resources.

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland sea on Earth by area, variously classed as a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2. Size of water and biological resources, rich reserves of oil and gas underline the importance of the sea. According to official information, oil reserves in the Caspian Sea are amount 3% of the world [1].

According to ancient researches of Aristotle and Herodotus: Caspian Sea described as, landlocked pool connected with Black Sea. During a various historical periods it has different names. Nowadays, about 40 names of sea are known. Changing of names depended on the ethnic tribes inhabiting that region or in accordance with the coastal cities. Today`s official name is associated with the name of tribe that inhabited on the western shore of the Caspian Sea [2].

From the beginning of VIII century Caspian Sea was conquered by Abbasid dynasty and till the end of 1722 in was under Persian rule. In the period of Middle ages Caspian Sea became an area of interests of Russians. Invasian of Prince Igor was the strongest after Mongol occupation. The first documents about legal status of the Caspian Sea were composed in the XVIII century during the expansion of the Caspian Sea by Russia Empire. In 1870, after discovery of oil reserves in the Caspian Sea in the west of the beach, Russian and Persian Empires interests in that region has increased.

The first agreement between Russia and Persia was Rasht. According to this agreement, Russia had an opportunity to provide free trade and shipping through the Caspian Sea, the rivers Kura and Arax. After demarcation of the sea area, its` largest part was given to Russia.In accordance with the next Gulistan Treaty in 1813, then Turkmanchay treaty (1828), Russia legalized its` right to create a navy in the Caspian Sea. Persians were limited only by trade and shipping [3]. In 1921, 1935 and 1940 it was agreed that two countries have equal rights in shipping in the Caspian Sea.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, around the Caspian Sea formed new four independent states Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkmenistan; new geopolitical situation took place as well. Treaty of 1921 between the Soviet Union and Persia could not respond to the new geopolitical interests, it couldn’t regulate profitable cooperation mutual relations of coastal countries. Because there was not any rule about legal status of the sea and separation the bottom of the sea among new states. In this regard, by taking into account the interests of 5 states around the Caspian Sea there was a necessity to find out new definition of the legal status of the sea.

In accordance with today`s division of the Caspian Sea territory: the Republic of Kazakhstan possesses 30.8%, Russia Federation got 18.5%, Islamic Republic of Iran has 18,7%, Turkmenistan took 16.8% and Azerbaijan got 15.2% of the sea [4].

In 1992 in Teheran the first International Conference on Problem of legal status of Caspian Sea was held with participation of littoral states. Caspian states were interested in jointly solving the issues of exploration work, biodiversity protection and rational use of natural resources of the Caspian Sea.

The next most important meeting was held in Moscow on November 11-12, 1993. The main objective of the conference was to discuss the proposals of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russian Federation on the status of the Caspian Sea. According to the program proposed by Azerbaijan: the Caspian Sea must be considered as transborder lake and use it by division into relevant sectors. Kazakhstan suggested accepting Caspian Sea as “locked sea” and divide it in accordance with the UNCLOS Part IX. Mentioned recommendations were unprofitable for interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russian Federation. As the result suggestions were not accepted.

It is important to pay attention to the process of defining the legal status of the Caspian Sea, there was an active discussion about its recognition as the lake, or the sea. If the Caspian Sea is an inland sea, its waters and resources are regulated by the United Nations Convention on the Seas (hereinafter UNCLOS), open to all the littoral states, and accessible to these states and the great multinational petroleum corporations. That is all geopolitical processes around Caspian Sea must be regulated by The International Law. If the Caspian Sea is just a lake, its waters and resources should be divided by the littoral states, and are not open to the international community.

New stage of collaboration between Caspian littoral states on the issue of the Caspian Sea status began in 1995.In 1995, at Almaty conference five Caspian littoral states decided to create Special Working Group (SWG) for the preparation of the Convention on the legal status. The main purpose of that group was through the preparing and adoption of this Convention is to fill the legal vacuum [5].

The first meeting of Special working group on Caspian Sea status was held in Tehran, the next one was in Almaty. During the meeting participants agreed the main principles of cooperation between littoral states. Principles such as the sovereignty of each state, the integrity of borders, the use of bioresources of the Caspian Sea for peaceful purposes and general responsibility for environmental pollution were announced during this meeting. During 1995-1996’s there were held a lot of conferences; however none of them could reach consensus on the issue of the Caspian Sea. Even multilateral negotiations were unsuccessful, bilateral talks began to be held.

In 1998 Russian Federation and Republic of Kazakhstan signed the agreement on the delimitation of borders of the Caspian Sea bottom. Russian Federation’s another bilateral agreement on delimitation of borders was signed with Azerbaijan in 2001. Besides during 2000-2002 there was enough work of the Special working group on condominium of Convention towards the legal status of Caspian Sea. Nowadays meeting of the Special working group of the Caspian states hold regularly on the territory of each member country.

In April 2002 five littoral states of the Caspian Sea, such as Russian Federation, Islamic Republic of Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan started their first Summit in Ashgabat. During the Summit states could not come to common conclusions. Positions of Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were against the positions of Iran. According to the position of IRI Caspian Sea must be divided into equal parts for each 20 percent, and there were another view as following to the principles of 1921 condominium agreement. Consequently, the first Summit was finished without any solution. However there were a lot of comments that it was the good beginning to hold such Summit in order to solve problem [6].

In May 2003 during Almaty meeting of Special working group among three countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan agreement on demilitarization of the bottom of the Caspian Sea was signed. According to it, the bottom of the Caspian Sea was divided as following: the Russian Federation 19%, 29% to the Republic of Kazakhstan and 18% to Azerbaijan. But IRI proclaimed that this agreement was against international law.

During the Special working group’s following meeting littoral states paid attention to the ecologic security issues. In 2007, in Tehran there was held the second Summit on Caspian Sea issues. It was the first time when agreement of legal status of the Caspian Sea was arranged on high political level. Moreover huge attention was paid to Caspian region security and stability issues. As a result, agreement on security and partnership in Caspian Sea was signed among littoral states. This agreement is legal basis on saving security and struggling against violation in Caspian Sea. Nowadays the agreement establishes the main directions and forms of cooperation in these areas.

The third Summit was held in Baku in 2010. Heads of five Caspian region countries stated that they are ready to sign into Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. During this Summit the Convention was not signed, however it gave right direction to the work of next Summit.

In September 2014, there were the fourth Summit of Caspian Sea littoral states. Presidents of all five countries participated in this meeting and they adopted Communiqué. Furthermore the following documents were also signed [7]:

1. Agreement on conservation and sustainable use of water and biological resources of Caspian;
2. Agreement on cooperation in prevention of emergency situations in Caspian and elimination of their consequences;
3. Agreement for cooperation in the field of hydrometeorology of Caspian.

Then President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of Turkmenistan Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov signed a statement of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan [8 9]. This Summit was a great event for all the five countries of the Caspian region. The done work has shown results, and hopes were justified in the Fourth Summit.

5th Summit of the Caspian Sea five countries was held in Astana in July 2016. The main task, which was on the agenda, detailed elaboration of a draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which should be signed by the heads of all the five states. As a result the parties still remain unresolved issues, and decided to postpone the summit for the next year. Nevertheless, negotiations, as noted by the parties, have been fruitful.

The negotiation process on the Caspian Sea legal status is highly complex. There are still issues that need further discussion, namely concerning communications issues on the bottom of the Caspian Sea, transit and navigation of different ships and issues of determining methods delimitation of the seabed, which will be based on equality, justice and mutual benefit interests. All these issues demand additional expert examination. In this regard Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea should be a final document of following summit. Nevertheless, we can say that concerning the legal status of the Caspian Sea, parts come close to solving the problem. Nowadays five littoral states come to a common decision on some controversial issues. The parties are ready make maximum efforts to solve all the principal issues on the draft Convention. Kazakhstan is optimistic and confident that the basis and conditions of the agreement will be equal for all the Caspian Sea states.

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