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RFL/RE – A summit of Caspian Sea littoral states is set for August 12 in Kazakhstan’s port city of Aktau. It is the fifth such summit, but this one is the big one.
After some 22 years and more than 50 meetings of working groups, the five countries — Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan — are reportedly prepared to sign a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.
The agreement should resolve many of the issues surrounding the use of the Caspian Sea by the five countries. For more than two decades, these disputes have held up many important projects, notably energy export initiatives such as the proposed Trans-Caspian Pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan that would ideally bring Turkmen gas to European markets.
This week’s Majlis podcast looks at what the agreement means for energy exports from the Caspian and the challenges ahead for the Caspian countries as they push forward with projects that had been put on hold while diplomats spent two decades hashing out the details of an agreement.
RFE/RL’s media-relations manager, Muhammad Tahir, moderates the discussion.
From Washington, Theresa Sabonis-Helf, professor of national security strategy at the National War College, joins the talk. From Tbilisi, Giorgi Vashakmadze, the Georgian prime minister’s adviser for the East-West energy corridor, participates. And one of the leading authorities on Caspian energy politics, Robert Cutler, who is a senior research fellow at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, takes part.
Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes.
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Bruce Pannier
Bruce Pannier writes the Qishloq Ovozi blog and appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.
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Muhammad Tahir
Muhammad Tahir, a former director of RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, currently serves as RFE/RL’s media relations manager in Washington, D.C.
