Translated material
Caspian Sea against missile defense
Moscow invites neighbors to take part in its game
Viktor Kalyuzhny is dissatisfied with the results of the meeting of the five-party Special Working Group (ASWG) on the Caspian Sea at the level of deputy foreign ministers that ended in Tehran. The President’s Special Representative for the Caspian Sea can be understood: the former Minister of Fuel and Energy, accustomed during his economic activities to visible results amounting to multimillion-dollar sums both in money and in tons of oil, had to once again, in a new diplomatic field for him, have to face sophisticated techniques political "oriental martial arts".Nevertheless, Moscow’s chief Caspian negotiator is disingenuous when he complains about the low effectiveness of the Tehran meeting. Not without Kalyuzhny’s efforts, after a break of more than two years, high-ranking experts from the five Caspian states finally sat down at the same table and agreed to resume quarterly meetings, the next of which will be held in Baku. Another thing is that the discussions in Tehran took place mainly on the terms proposed by the hosts of the meeting - the Iranians. The reason is clear - the draft final document of the “five” summit was discussed, which, at the proposal of Turkmen President Niyazov, was supposed to be held on March 8-9 in Turkmenbashi. At the same time, participation in such a meeting is not very profitable for Tehran now. Firstly, the Iranians made it clear that for their president, Mohammad Khatami, participation in two major events in a row could be “an overwhelming task” (Khatami is going to Moscow on an official visit on March 12). Secondly, the Caspian summit does not promise Khatami any political dividends, because Iran’s position on dividing the Caspian Sea does not find support from other partners in the region (Tehran demands the division of the sea into five equal parts). True, to the surprise of the hosts of the Tehran meeting, it was discovered that the Caspian summit could take place without Iran’s participation, in a four-party format. The chairman, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani, was even forced to gently say something about this: they say that this line of thinking seems erroneous to him. The Russian representative shared a similar assessment. As a result, Tehran finally achieved its goal: the summit of the Caspian five in Turkmenistan will most likely be postponed to a later date, perhaps to April.
True, the communiqué following the Tehran meeting said nothing about this; a new date will be proposed by the host of the future summit, Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov, who will begin direct telephone consultations with the rest of the leaders of the region starting tomorrow. If the date is agreed upon, then on the eve of the presidential meeting an extraordinary meeting of the AWG should be held in Ashgabat to complete the preparation of the final document of the summit. In Tehran, only half of its points have so far been discussed, the total number of which reaches almost four dozen. By the way, what was unexpected for the other participants was Moscow’s persistent desire to include in the document issues that were not related to the main topic. Namely, support for efforts to preserve the regime of the Soviet-American ABM Treaty of 1972, UN sanctions against the Afghan Taliban movement, as well as condemnation of the recent US-British air strikes on Iraq. As Viktor Kalyuzhny told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, through the efforts of the Turkmen delegation, it was proposed to postpone the discussion of these issues as very far from the Caspian issues. Perhaps this is precisely what accounts for Mr. Kalyuzhny’s certain disappointment with the results of the Tehran meeting: according to him, it would be “too great a luxury” for the Russian President not to take advantage of the meeting with the leaders of the Caspian region in order to enlist their support for the Russian position on issues important to Moscow problems.