Kazaks to Seek Role as Caspian Broker

If President Nursultan Nazarbaev strengthens ties with Iran during an upcoming visit to the country, Kazakstan may take the lead in negotiations on the Caspian Sea territorial dispute which are scheduled for April, NBCentralAsia commentators say.



President Nazarbaev is to visit Iran in late March or early April, and NBCentralAsia analysts say his most important task is to lay the foundations for talks on the status of the Caspian in Tehran later in April.



Kazakstan political scientist Maksim Kaznacheev said, “This upcoming visit is a chance to get negotiations on the status of the Caspian Sea moving. Strengthening Kazak-Iranian economic cooperation may bring both sides to a closer position, [especially on energy] and could facilitate an agreement.”



Andrei Chebotarev, director of the Alternativa think tank, says Kazakstan can push for a resolution to the Caspian dispute through its relationship with Iran.



“Moscow may well encourage Astana to develop good bilateral relations with Tehran and seek concessions to solve the Caspian issue,” he said.



A summit of the five Caspian states will be held in April to try to resolve the 15-year dispute over who owns what in the oil-rich sea.



Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Russia have proposed dividing the sea along the median line in keeping with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which says that a sea’s resources, airspace and bed should be divided along national boundary lines drawn from a central line. Iran stands to get just 13 per cent of the sea from such a division, and it argues that by any geographical definition, the Caspian is actually a lake and should be divided into five equal sections, giving each country a 20 per cent share.



During his trip, Nazarbaev will also concentrate on expanding trade with Iran, particularly in oil and grain.



Kazakstan currently exports over one million barrels of oil to Iran a year, and both countries plan to finish building a grain terminal in the Iranian port of Amirabad, to allow more Kazak wheat into the country.



Some believe that Iran will use this visit to make sure Kazakstan stays neutral if its relationship with the United States deteriorate further.



“Both sides will use this meeting to enhance their images: Kazakstan as a mediator in the dialogue between Iran and the West, with Iran demonstrating that it has a constructive foreign policy,” said Kaznacheev.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)