Kazakh president proposes to create free trade zone in Caspian Sea

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has proposed creation of a free trade zone in the Caspian Sea.
President Nazarbayev made this proposal at the Caspian Summit in Astrakhan Sept. 29, Russia 24 TV channel reports.
“It is possible to lay the foundation for economic cooperation before the legal status of the Caspian Sea is resolved,” the president said. “I propose to consider the proposal to create a Caspian free trade zone. This issue can be one of the first issues for substantive discussion on the level of our governments.”
He also proposed to consider the opportunity of convergence among the economies of the countries of the Caspian region and increasing trade volumes, given the current state of the world market.
President Nazarbayev also urged the participants of the summit to agree on the principles of free way from the Caspian Sea to other seas and the world ocean as a whole on the basis of universally recognized norms and principles of international law.
Moreover, President Nazarbayev reminded that today Kazakhstan is implementing a number of transportation projects. All necessary conditions are being created to turn the country’s territory into the business transit hub.
“Taking into account the opening routes through Kazakhstan, we propose to use them as transit bridges to deliver goods from the Caspian countries to the markets of other countries, especially China and up to the Pacific Ocean,” he said.
President Nazarbayev proposed to conclude the intergovernmental agreements on this issue.