Strategic plans of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran

In August 2016 a trilateral meeting of the heads of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran was held. This meeting was contributed, on the one hand, by formed neighborhood and partnership relations as a result of the general geography and close economic ties, on the other hand, by the remaining problems, global challenges, tension on the borders of the countries mentioned above.

On the agenda of the summit the issues were brought up, which are related to the multi-faceted co-operation in trade, transport, energy, culture, tourism; cooperation in financial, banking and insurance sectors; participation in projects of other countries; countering the global economic crisis; fight against terrorism; ensuring regional stability and security.

Among the scale projects discussed during the summit the experts have singled out the following:
- work on a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea,
- development and exploration, first of all in the Caspian region,
- a project of the construction of a railway line Rasht (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) – the unit of the international transport corridor «North - South»,
- energy corridor development, due to the connection of Azerbaijani power lines with Iran and Russia,
- schemas of the shared use of the pipeline infrastructure for the transportation of raw materials etc.

The Special Working Group (SWG) on the level of deputy foreign ministers has been working on the development of the Convention since 1996. Five states have the coastline with the Caspian Sea, also Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan except the mentioned above. Already much has been done, in particular, an agreement on the delimitation of a part of the bottom of the Caspian Sea was made, the Framework convention for the protection of the marine environment, the Declaration on common approaches to the development of a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea were signed etc. At the summit it was underlined the necessity and importance to finish such work.

Completion of the specific section of the corridor Rasht (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) will allow to organize a direct railway link from the Persian Gulf to Europe. The line «North - South» will help Russia to intensify the goods turnover with the Gulf countries, India and supply grain, equipment, medicines, fertilizers and agricultural machinery to these regions. Iran, in its turn, gets an opportunity to enter new markets, Azerbaijan - to increase the volumes and reduce the cost of supplies of fruits and vegetables to Russia. Europe, using such a corridor, will be able to provide diversification of trade flows. If this direction is efficient, Chinese exporters will include it with pleasure in the part of the Silk Road.

Today, Azerbaijan has turned from a country, importing electricity, to the country, exporting it. The connection of power lines of Azerbaijan with Iran and Russia opened even more opportunities. The power system of Azerbaijan functions in the parallel operating mode with the Unified Energy System of Russia in accordance with the existing agreement. In the future, joint efforts should contribute to form a reliable energy corridor for the energy exchange between the three countries and to enter new markets.

Following the results of the summit the leaders of the three countries signed the declaration, covering almost all areas of co-operation. New projects in the Caspian Sea, including in trade, transport, energy, will be able to diversify the trilateral trade and economic relations. According to the experts, the meeting in Baku may become a new and independent format of interstate co-operation, that allowed to consider it as a historical event.