On 11th of March, 2019 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan the first meeting of the authorized representatives of the Caspian littoral states for discussing and matching the project «Agreements between the governments of the Caspian states on cooperation in conducting search and rescue operations on the Caspian Sea» began its work.
Under the instruction of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Enterprise for the Caspian Sea under the President of Turkmenistan.
During the first meeting the experts of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, started the work process of discussing the project of agreement and matching the offers of the sides.
Speaking at the Summit in Aktau (Republic of Kazakhstan) on 12th of August, 2018, the President of Turkmenistan noted: «As is known, the communiqué of the Fourth Caspian Summit provided for the development of an emergency response mechanism. Taking into account the fact that most of the Caspian Sea’s area is a common space, further work in this direction is needed».
The response mechanism is also an important component in search and rescue at the sea. In this context, the matching of a five-sided agreement in the field of search and rescue operations in the Caspian Sea has a special relevance.
According to this initiative of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov Turkmen specialists prepared the project of the «Agreement between the governments of the Caspian states on cooperation in conducting search and rescue operations on the Caspian Sea», which was sent to the relevant organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.
The current, first meeting of authorized representatives of the Caspian states to agree on the text of the project «Agreement between the governments of the Caspian states on cooperation in conducting search and rescue operations on the Caspian Sea» will last for 3 days and will be completed on 13th of March.