The New York Times
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Tehran - President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia told a summit of five Caspian Sea nations in Iran today that any use of military force in the Caspian region was unacceptable and in a declaration the countries agreed that none of them would allow their territories to be used as a base for launching military strikes against any of the others.
"We should not even think of making use of force in this region," Mr. Putin said. "We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," he added.
Mr. Putin's comments and the declaration come at a time when France and the United States have refused to rule out military action to halt Iran's nuclear program, which they believe is focused on nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.
The comments were also a strong message that Russia objects to any American military presence in other Caspian Sea states.
Mr. Putin arrived in Tehran today for strategic meetings with Iran and the leaders from three other nearby Caspian Sea nations that have rich oil and gas resources, promising to use dialogue to try to resolve the international debate over Iran's nuclear program.
He was the first Kremlin leader to travel to Iran since 1943, when Stalin attended a wartime summit meeting with Churchill and Roosevelt. In the declaration, the nations acknowledged the rights of all signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, Reuters reported.
Russia has obstructed a third set of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations that are intended to persuade the country to stop enrichment activities, which Western nations fear could lead to the development of nuclear weapons. Iran insists it wants to use its nuclear program for conventional purposes only.
Mr. Putin, who stresses the need for further dialogue and working within the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear monitoring agency based in Vienna, was scheduled to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad twice today.
The main reason for the trip is ostensibly the meeting in Tehran of nations that border the Caspian Sea, including the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. They discussed the division of the Caspian Sea resources, particularly oil, among the five coastline states.
With world oil prices at about $86 a barrel, the legal status and ownership of the sea's vast oil and gas deposits have become a contentious issues.
"The division of the sea is not less important than the nuclear program," said Ahmad Nateq Nouri, a former parliamentary speaker, in a report carried on the Fars news agency.
Before 1991, Iran and the Soviet Union each took 50 percent of the oil and gas from the Caspian Sea. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the independence of its constituent republics, the division of the oil became more complicated.
Iran, whose coastline makes up about 13 percent of the sea, has insisted that it will not agree to a share of less than 20 percent.
Right now the nations are developing the oil resources as they see fit, without a formal international agreement. A joint agreement could spur new development projects, which Russia and Iran want to pursue without looking outside the region for foreign investment.
"On many issues we have reached final agreement but we also need collective cooperation," said Mr. Ahmadinejad in his opening speech at the gathering today. "The goal is to keep the sea clear of military competitions and keep foreigners out of the region."
However, the summit concluded without a clear agreement on territorial shares. The leaders said in the declaration that the sea would be used for peaceful purposes and its issues would be resolved by the coastline states.
As part of their nuclear talks, Mr. Putin and Mr. Ahmadinejad were expected to discuss the completion of a nuclear power plant that Russia is building in the southern city of Bushehr.
Russia has given various reasons for the delay in completing the plant.
Mr. Putin was received by the foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, at the Tehran airport, according to state-run television. Mr. Putin, who had flown from Germany, where he met Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, went ahead with the trip despite a report of a possible assassination plot against him in Iran.
On Sunday evening, the Interfax news agency in Moscow reported that Mr. Putin had received a warning from the Russian special services that his life would be in danger during his trip. Interfax cited a single security person as its source whom it did not name. This person talked of potential groups of suicide bombers. Other news agencies sent out similar reports on Monday but without details or evidence, and Iran dismissed the reports.
"Tehran and Moscow are strategic partners," Kazem Jalali, a member of Parliament, said in an interview with state television. "We are against unilateral policies and so is Russia," he said, referring to American efforts to exert pressure on Tehran to cease what it sees as development of nuclear weapons. "This puts us both in the same front," he said.
Russia and China hold veto power on the United Nations Security Council, and Iran is relying on both countries - which have important trade ties with Iran - to oppose another round of sanctions. Moscow voted for two sets of earlier sanctions but it has said that it will not support a third set unless it is proven that Iran has a program to build nuclear weapons.
In addition to the nuclear power plants and business ties, Moscow has military deals with Iran.
"The visit is a big victory for Iran in the face of efforts by the West which is trying to isolate Iran," wrote the semi-official Fars news agency which often represents the views of Mr. Ahmadinejad.
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