TURKMENIA AND IRAN COME OUT FOR JOINT USE OF CASPIAN SEA RESOURCES

Turkmenia and Iran come out for unconditional demilitarisation of the Caspian region and for the necessity to jointly use natural resources of the Sea. This was stated during the Thursday meeting of president of Turkmenia Saparmurat Niyazov and special representative of Iran on the problems of the Caspian Sea Mehdi Safari, former Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Russia. It was announced during the meeting that an official visit of president of Iran Sayed Mohammad Hatami to Turkmenistan would take place in March 2002. Questions relating to the course of the negotiating process on defining the international-law status of the Caspian Sea, as well as to bilateral trade and economic relations were discussed at the meeting. In particular, the projects of cooperation between Iran and Turkmenia in the fields of polyethylene production and construction of an optical-fibre communication line were presented to president Niyazov.