By Jennifer DeLay

08-08-00 The discussions in Tehran and Ashgabat on the status of the Caspian Sea were marked by a number of public displays of good will. Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi took care to praise the proposals submitted to him on July 31 and August 1 by Viktor Kalyuzhny, the former fuel and energy minister who is now serving as Russia's special envoy for Caspian issues. Kalyuzhny, for his part, said his time in Tehran had been fruitful and used very delicate language to describe his points of disagreement with the Iranian position.
He also expressed his approval of plans for representatives of all five littoral states to meet in Turkmenistan some time in the next few months. Then Kharrazi's deputy Mortez Sarmadi said in Ashgabat that Turkmenistan and Iran held very similar views on the Caspian issue and would issue a joint statement on the issue soon.
All in all, a pretty show of diplomacy. Yet it appears that Kalyuzhny, Kharrazi and their colleagues really had little of substance to say. Instead, they were talking past each other, with each side vying -- albeit politely -- to present itself as more reasonable and fair than the other littoral states.

Russia and Iran, for example, both asserted title to proposals to set up a five-way commission to oversee environmental, fishing, security, energy and other issues. Kalyuzhny said he had presented Kharrazi with documents describing a Russian plan to establish a special centre for Caspian issues.
The Iranian minister had nothing but praise for the Russian program, but he also asserted that Tehran had been the one to introduce the idea of such a multilateral organization. This is something of a strange development, especially given that Iran and Russia have usually teamed up to argue against the other three littoral state's arguments for division of the Caspian Sea.
Iran and Turkmenistan, meanwhile, declared that they had very similar views on the Caspian issue and would work together to draw up a set of principles for the development of the sea's oil and gas reserves that would apply until the five littoral states were able to reach a final agreement.
This is reminiscent of the summer of 1998, when Tehran and Ashgabat pledged to:
a) abide by the 1921 and 1940 Soviet-Iranian treaties on the Caspian pending further settlement;
b) lobby for partial division of the Caspian and the introduction of a condominium arrangement for the middle part of the sea; and
c) insist that the principles of equality and fair usage be applied in the event that the Caspian was divided up among the littoral states.

Sarmadi told that Turkmenistan shared Iran's belief that the sea's resources should be subject to common ownership. Turkmenistani officials did not immediately confirm his statement, and it remains to be seen whether Ashgabat -- which, much like the other four littoral states, has been quite eager to lay claim to a large swathe of the Caspian seabed -- is really as comfortable with Tehran's stance on the Caspian as Sarmadi seems to think.
Another odd development was Kalyuzhny's description of the Russian position on Iran's proposal to grant each of the five countries surrounding the sea a 20 % share of its resources. Kalyuzhny did not exactly admit that the Kremlin did not agree with Tehran, which has typically been Russia's closest ally on this front, with respect to the 20 % share plan.
Instead, he explained Moscow's position by remarking that the Azerbaijani, Kazakhstani and Turkmenistani governments disagreed with the idea. This is a strange turn of phrase, especially since Russian diplomats have frequently criticised Baku, Astana and Ashgabat for their stance in favour of division of the Caspian.
Under such conditions, it is difficult to gauge the sincerity and real attitude of each player in the game. How can one predict whether Moscow and Tehran will stick together when each side is trying to prove that it was the first to conceive of setting up a multilateral agency for the Caspian?
How can one know whether Ashgabat and Tehran are on the same side when Kalyuzhny disagrees with Sarmadi's assertions as to the Turkmenistani attitude on 20 % shares of the sea's resources? If this sort of barbed doublespeak continues, it is likely that the upcoming meeting in Ashgabat -- which, according to Kalyuzhny, will take place within the next few months -- will accomplish very little indeed.