Kazakhstan consistently stands for sustainable five-party cooperation in Caspian Sea – Kazakh FM Nurtleu

Kazakhstan has consistently stood for the strengthening and deepening five-way cooperation with the Caspian states, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu said during a meeting of the foreign ministers of the five Caspian states in Moscow, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports. 

Speaking at the meeting in an expanded format, the head of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan noted the dynamic development of the potential of the Caspian region.

Our region has a special role to play in ensuring energy security and transport accessibility on the Eurasian continent. Kazakhstan continues to improve its transport infrastructure, including the ports of Aktau and Kuryk. In 2022, traffic through these ports increased 2.5 times and reached 1.5 billion tons. This work will contribute to the systematic increase in the capacity of this corridor to 500 thousand containers by 2030, he said.

The Kazakh foreign minister also noted the positive dynamics of the growth of mutual trade between Kazakhstan and the coastal states.

In eight months of this year it reached $18 billion, he said.

Nurtleu emphasized that the development of investment partnerships in agriculture, mechanical engineering, petrochemicals, healthcare, and tourism opens up great prospects.

Kazakhstan invariably stands for strengthening and deepening five-party cooperation, said the head of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.

Speaking of the current Caspian negotiation process, Nurtleu noted the importance of the task of ensuring the entry into force of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea.

The Foreign Minister also noted the need to create a Secretariat of the Tehran Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea.

Upon the initiative of President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, by the end of this year, Kazakhstan will create a research institute for the study of the Caspian Sea, said Nurtleu.

The head of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry also noted the need to complete the work on a number of five-sided documents.

During the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted the growing importance of the demand for such meetings at the level of heads of foreign policy departments of the Caspian countries.