On April 26-27, 2018 in Ashgabat, a regular meeting of authorized representatives of the Caspian states was held, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and Economics and the State Enterprise for Caspian Sea Affairs under the President of Turkmenistan.
Now in its fourth year, the meeting of experts from Turkmenistan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Kazakhstan was held to finalize a draft Agreement on trade and economic cooperation between the five Caspian Sea littoral states.
The Caspian Region has enormous economic potential and all the littoral countries will equally benefit from its realization. Constructive discussions on the Agreement on trade and economic cooperation, and proposals made at the meeting indicate that the parties are willing to actively collaborate in this area, raise the effective collaboration to yet a higher and qualitatively new level, and give special meaning to it.
The draft document largely focuses on the legal and organizational mechanisms that will provide a platform for establishing an efficient dialogue between the littoral countries’ government agencies and business communities. On the whole, this will enhance the mutually advantageous trade-economic ties, boost trade turnover and the region’s investment attractiveness, as well as facilitate regional and interregional economic integration.
