Leaders of Caspian Five countries stress importance of military cooperation in Caspian region - final communique

MOSCOW. June 29 (Interfax) - The leaders of the Caspian Five countries have spoken out in favor of promoting talks on the draft agreement on confidence-building measures in military activity in the Caspian Sea.

The final communique of the Caspian Summit in Ashgabat noted that this agreement "will serve to ensure security and stability, to establish regulations and rules for interaction of the Caspian states in the military sphere in accordance with the principles of the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea."

The presidents of the Caspian countries reaffirmed in the communique that the activities of the littoral states will be based on a number of principles, in particular, "ensuring a stable balance of arms of the littoral states in the Caspian Sea, carrying out military build-up within the limits of reasonable sufficiency taking into account the interests of all littoral states, and not harming each other's security."

Among other principles of interaction between the Caspian states are "the absence of armed forces in the Caspian Sea that do not belong to the littoral states, and the non-provision by any littoral state of its territory to other countries for aggression and other military actions against any of the littoral states."

The communique published on the Kremlin's website generally highlighted "the importance of interaction in the military sphere in the Caspian Sea."