Russian, Azeri Presidents Sign Joint Statement on Caspian StatusRussian President Vladimir Putin and his Azeri counterpart Heydar Aliyev signed a joint statement on the status of the Caspian Sea and a joint political communique "the Baku Declaration" on Tuesday.Russia and Azerbaijan will move to accelerate talks among the five Caspian-neighboring states in order to promote cooperation in the Caspian region and the settlement of the status of the Caspian Sea, the joint statement said. The two sides confirmed their position on using the Caspian Sea "exclusively for peaceful purposes," emphasized that "it must be an area of peace and friendship, and all problems involving the Caspian must be solved only by peaceful means." "Russia and Azerbaijan reiterate that the development of a new legal status for the Caspian is the business of the Caspian- neighboring states themselves and that this status can be worked out only on the basis of their common consent," the statement reads. Considering disagreements of the Caspian states, a consensus solution to this problem "should be looked for gradually," it stresses. "At the first stage, the Caspian seafloor could be divided into sectors among corresponding neighboring and oppositely-located states, on the principle of a median line drawn at equal distance from the sides and modified at their mutual consent," it says. The joint political communique, or "The Baku Declaration," notes that Russia and Azerbaijan are determined to bring bilateral relations onto a new and higher level of strategic partnership. The two counties agreed to strengthen cooperation in translating the Caucasus into a peaceful and neighborly region. The two sides pledged to develop military and technical cooperation not against a third country. Both sides favor a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the basis of corresponding resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and OSCE decisions, Putin told a news conference after his meeting with Aliyev. Deputy head of the Russian presidential administration Sergei Prikhodko said in Baku on Tuesday that Moscow "is keeping up a direct dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia on these problems. We will support a solution that is acceptable to both sides." The two presidents also decided to expand bilateral cooperation in oil and fuel industries. During their meeting, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and Russian oil major producer Lukoil signed a 250-million-U.S.-dollar contract on the joint exploitation of oil deposits in the southeast Apsheron peninsula of Azerbaijan. Putin arrived in Baku on Tuesday for a two-day official visit, a first trip by Russia's head of state to Azerbaijan in the past 10 years. |
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