On March 12, 2018 in Ashgabat, a regular meeting of representatives of the Caspian states began to discuss the draft Agreement on trade and economic cooperation between the Caspian states. The meeting was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the State Enterprise for Caspian Sea Affairs under the President of Turkmenistan. Heads, leading specialists and experts of the relevant ministries and departments of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan took part in it.
As it was noted during the meeting, over the past period a lot of work was done on the practical implementation of previously reached agreements. Significant progress was made in the process of agreeing on a number of new normative and legal documents, which are to be signed in a five-sided format. Among them is the Agreement on trade and economic cooperation between the Caspian states, designed to promote the comprehensive strengthening and expansion of mutually beneficial economic ties with an impressive potential.
As was stressed by the participants, the draft Agreement on trade and economic cooperation between the Caspian states, developed by the Turkmen side, is aimed at intensifying mutually beneficial trade and economic ties between the Caspian countries. Particular attention during the meeting was paid to the initiative of the President of Turkmenistan, on the creation of a permanent Caspian Economic Forum, designed to become a negotiation platform for representatives of government and business circles of the Caspian states.
During the two-day work, it is planned to discuss the draft Agreement, as well as exchange of opinions and adjustment of positions on individual articles of the agreement.
