Turkmenistan faces difficulties in opening Caspian naval base
21:24 31/08/2009 MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - Turkmenistan will find that opening a military base on the Caspian Sea is easier said than done, Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, said on Monday.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov announced on Sunday at the National Security Council session that Turkmenistan will in the immediate future open a naval base on the Caspian Sea to secure the country's maritime border.
"I believe it will be more difficult to implement this decision than to announce it, since Turkmenistan is not a country with considerable military potential, which of course could be purchased with revenue from gas sales, but still it will not be easy to do," he said.
He added that the announcement could also have been made in order to show Turkmenistan's determination to defend its interests against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations on the legal status of the Caspian Sea between the five littoral states - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.
"The issue of the Caspian Sea delimitation is still undecided... with each country being afraid that the talks will not end in its favor, and Turkmenistan is particularly afraid of this as it views Kazakhstan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia with suspicion," Lukyanov said, adding that the plan to open the naval base could be "a symbolic move to show that Turkmenistan will be protecting its interests on the Caspian Sea."
The status of the oil- and gas-rich inland sea has been a source of disagreement between Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The countries have yet to agree on how to divide the seabed. The Caspian's oil and gas reserves, believed to be the world's third largest, have also been a source of rivalry between Russia, Iran and the West.
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