The president of Iran (right) devoted himself to the topic at hand at the summit on the Caspian Sea.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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President of Iran Sticks to the Agenda
Caspian Sea littoral states presidents reached an agreement yesterday in Iran that, should one of them be in armed conflict with a third state, neither their territory nor their armed forces will be used against it. That means, as Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov sees it, observing the progress of the summit, that Russia will defend Iran's interests in case it comes into radical conflict with the United States.
They were waiting anxiously for the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran. It even seemed that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was more interested in whether Putin was coming to the summit than in the summit itself. In that sense, the threat of an assassination attempt against the Russian president reported by Interfax (citing sources in “one of the Russian intelligence services”) was a great boon to him, at least as long as it remains only a threat.
It would be an overstatement to say that Iran was well prepared for the summit. Cellular phones are practically useless here, and it is not customary to use the Internet, so there was no access to it at the press center. Iranians understand only what they want to. One thing they understand very well is that they can't keep track of everything Russian television crews film. That's why they watch all of their footage at the television center before forwarding it to Moscow. That didn't stop the Iranian president from being one of the most covered personalities of the day in the Russian television news though.
Tehran did not live up to expectations as an ancient city, either. There is no old city. Instead, there is the impression that the buildings there are run down when they are built.
In such a huge and dusty city, the slight president in a clean shirt seemed like a symbol of Iran's hospitality and goodwill. He greeted each of the guests by name at the beginning of the meeting, then turned to the Russian president and said, “I ask my friend Vladimir Putin to begin with his speech.”
His speech was not the first f the day, however. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev told the leaders that Azerbaijan began producing oil in the Caspian Sea in 1949. many of them probably remembered that the Soviet Union, of which the Azerbaijani SSR was a part, began to produce oil in the Caspian that year. The Azeri president also made a ritual statement about the Caspian being a sea of friendship and partnership.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev made it clear that the Caspian is still far from a sea of friendship. He, like Aliyev, signed a bilateral agreement on sea borders with Putin in 2002. Now he wants to develop that to mean 12-mile national sea borders and 25-mile economic zones. That does not suit Iran and Turkmenistan at all.
He noted with indignation that fishing quotas were established in Soviet times. “Iran catches 45 percent of the sturgeon, and Russia 27 percent!” he said.
Nazarbayev also proposed that the routes of pipelines on the seafloor be subject to agreement by all the Caspian states, not just the ones with an interest in the construction. This suggestion could backfire for him, since a oil line from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan is under consideration.
Putin's appearance was calm. He is satisfied with the agreements with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and seemingly with the lack of agreements with Iran and Turkmenistan. Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stated that a new approach is needed to the division of the Caspian Sea. He wants to apply international law to the extent it is in the interests of the Caspian states.
Ahmadinejad behaved himself ideally as he announced that a 25-point Tehran Declaration had been signed. He did not refer to any third countries (and for him there is only one third country). Allah only knows how he did it.
There were two-hour closed negotiations and then the leaders came out to hold a press conference. Putin led the way, deep in conversation with Aliyev. A little behind him, Ahmadinejad talked on a cell phone, a Motorola, if my eyes didn't deceive me.
“He's probably talking with George Bush,” one of my colleagues said too loudly in Russian. “George Bush” sounds the same in every language, of course, including Farsi. The Iranian president spun around toward us with a frightened look.
His good behavior continued, however. He announced that the participants in the summit had agreed to meet again next year, never straying off topic. “We will see each other next summer in Russia,” Astrakhan, according to Kommersant's sources, “under the leadership of respected Vladimir Putin,” he said, proving that Putin is eternal for at least some people. He added that the states would continue to observe existing agreements on the use of the Caspian Sea for the while.
His next announcement was more interesting. The five presidents had agreed not to provide their territory for the armed forces of third countries in case one of the Caspian states is attacked. That was a big gift to Ahmadinejad, of course. It made his life easier, psychologically. It probably made Aliyev's life psychologically harder, since he had been more loyal to the U.S. than Iran before.
After that, each president took one question from one journalist from the same country.
The president of Kazakhstan said with pleasure that negotiations on the division of the Caspian Sea had moved forward from their stalemate. Putin stifled a yawn as he was speaking.
Putin said that they would be “led by the norms that exist today” until a convention was signed. “We confirmed the sovereignty over the Caspian of only the Caspian states and we announce that only ships flying the flag of Caspian state will enter the sea,” he said.
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan spoke about the agreement on a railroad to link Russia and Iran.
The Iranian journalist asked the Iranian president about “the attempt by certain states to prevent the summit,” an obvious reference to the threat to assassinate Putin.
“I want to make an announcement here!” Ahmadinejad exclaimed. “As my friends have said, the meeting was a success. The Caspian Sea is a sea of friendship! There is a collective will. But there are, of course, people who don't want stability!”
I thought the point had come when he would make Putin sorry he had sat down at the same table with him.
But Ahmadinejad maintained his calm and continued, “None of that will influence the development of cooperation and brotherhood. Our declaration is our response!”
He didn't even say “to the aggressor.”
Andrey Kolesnikov, Tehran
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 17, 2007
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