Moscow believes that the unilateral actions on the trans-Caspian as pipeline construction will undermine trust between the countries of the region, said Alexander Lukashevich, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, yesterday.
The trans-Caspian gas pipeline connecting Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan is needed to join the latter to the Southern Gas Corridor, via which gas will be exported from the Caspian region to Europe bypassing Russia. EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan believes that consent of the countries, via the territory of which it will be laid, is enough for construction of the pipeline along the Caspian Sea bottom. Russia and Iran are strongly opposed to this approach, claiming that this project must be implemented only with consent of all five Caspian basin states until solution of the Caspian Sea legal status.
“Unilateral actions on the trans-Caspian gas pipeline construction would have undermined trust between the Caspian basin states. It is not ruled out that lobbyists try to achieve that by promising partners of the project all possible political dividends,” Lukashevich told journalists.
RIA Novosti
