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several big projects to revitalize the idea of “Silk Road,” namely the Transit Corridor
Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACEA), founded in 1997, and Interstate Oil and Gas Transport
to Europe (INOGATE), founded in 1995 (Friedemann, 2000: 195).
Kazhegeldin (2001), the head of the opposition in Kazakhstan, concluded, “A
pipeline bridge between the Caspian region and Western Europe, Central Asia and the
world's oceans will help solve the problem of the globalization of Eurasian energy
resources.” He continues, “When involved in the global economy, these countries could
turn into strongholds of stability in a part of Asia that today poses major threats to the
world.” As a result, "Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have a historic
opportunity to become stable partners of both Russia and the West, and to be integrated
into the world economy.” Kazhegeldin stresses the importance of cooperation among
actors on the development of the pipeline routes in the Caspian region (Kazhegeldin, 2001:
11). Obviously, if the countries do not cooperate on oil and gas transportation routes and
reduction of transport fees and delays in energy projects, the countries will not integrate
into the world economy any time soon.
[INSERT TABLE 5]: Political Implications of Pipeline Politics (in progress)
Conflict over the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea
The unresolved legal status of the Caspian Sea poses conflict among littoral states
and delays the development of contentious oil and gas fields. During the Soviet-period, the
only two Caspian littoral states were Iran and the Soviet Union. A comprehensive
boundary treaty of 1954 delimits the boundary on both sides of the Caspian, but keeps
silent about the boundary within the sea itself. Earlier treaties were likewise silent about
the sea boundary.
Within the Soviet Union, no formal boundaries were delimited in the
sea among the republics: all the petroleum operations were assigned in accordance with
one or another republic’s proximity to the maritime areas (Behnaz, 1995).
**
A Soviet-Iranian treaty of 1940 granted each party an “exclusive right of fishing in its coastal waters up to
a limit of 10 nautical miles.” Exchanges of notes attached to Soviet-Iranian treaties of 1935 and 1940
declared that the Caspian is “regarded by the Governments as a Soviet and Iranian sea” (1935) and the
“parties hold the Caspian to belong to Iran and to the Soviet Union” (1940). These and other articles provide
for right of free and equal navigation in the Caspian by Iran and the USSR (Behnaz, 1995: 1-2).
Convention