President.ir - The President described Caspian Sea Legal Regime Convention as a very important step towards enhancing more convergence among the Caspian Sea littoral states and emphasised that the Islamic Republic of Iran, with its maritime access in the north and south, is prepared to play a strategic and regional role for development of trade and transportation.

Speaking on Sunday at Caspian Sea Littoral States Summit in Kazakhstan, President Hassan Rouhani said: �Today, this region has turned into a successful model for guaranteeing peace, stability, friendship, good neighbourliness and progress and this summit is another step in more convergence in the region that needs to be strengthened by taking more steps�.

President Hassan Rouhani�s address is as follows:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Your Excellency Mr Nursultan Nazarbayev,

Your Excellency Mr Ilham Aliyev

Your Excellency Mr Vladimir Putin,

Your Excellency Mr Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am truly happy that we are witnessing the Fifth Caspian Sea Littoral States Summit on the International Day of Caspian Sea in the beautiful coastal city of Aktau. I would also like to appreciate the warm and friendly hospitality of my dear friend and brother, Mr Nursultan Nazarbayev, honourable President of Kazakhstan.

After the collapse of former Soviet Union, cooperation between the Caspian Sea littoral states started through the signing of �Tehran Environment Convention� and it included a 25-article statement as the first political document signed between the five countries. In today�s historical meeting, we will witness the signing of Caspian Sea Legal Regime Convention that will put emphasis on sovereignty, sovereign rights, eligibility and monopoly of the right to decide on the sea. Legally speaking, this is a major document that monitors all rights and responsibilities of Caspian Sea littoral states. Of course, the formulation of the technical details will be postponed to other separate agreements.

In this convention, important principles such as emphasis on the prohibition of the presence of foreign armed forces and monopoly of any kind of navigation merely with the flags of the five littoral states, the prohibition of allowing foreigners to use the territories of the littoral states for acts of aggression against another littoral state have been mentioned.

Caspian Sea belongs to all its littoral states and any kind of formation and handing over military bases to foreign countries and the passage of warships and even transit of foreign military transit shipments belonging to a country other than Caspian Sea littoral states is forbidden.

Today, although a major step has been taken, we should admit that by the signing of this convention, still important issues remain unresolved in the Caspian Sea, in addition to the fact that the final adoption of the convention is contingent upon following the legal procedures in the five littoral states. I therefore deem it necessary to mention the articles of 1921 and 1940 treaties between Iran and the former Soviet Union and emphasise that in the Legal Regime Convention of the Caspian Sea, the confines of the seabed have not been determined and this will be done in an agreement by the parties later. Furthermore, regarding the status of the coasts of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is clear that that the aim of the third paragraph of the section regarding the definition of straight baseline asserted in Article 1 of this convention is directed at the special status of Iran�s shores. Of course, this convention states that the method of drawing the straight baselines must be determined in a separate agreement by all parties to the convention.