OSCE promotes interstate co-operation in maritime security

National experts from four Caspian littoral OSCE participating states discussed effective mechanisms of incident and conflict prevention and security management on the maritime borders at an OSCE-organized roundtable meeting that concluded in Ashgabat today. 

Maritime border security officers, navy officers and customs officials from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, as well as officials from the OSCE Secretariat participated in the discussion.

"The purpose of today's event is to help ensure concerted action to enhance maritime borders security while encouraging cross-border cooperation, in the Caspian region," said Ambassador Ivo Petrov, Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat in his opening address. "We believe that the dialogue established among participants during this event will contribute towards further co-operation among them and their states."

Penny Satches-Brohs, Senior Advisor on Border Issues of the Transnational Threats Department of the OSCE Secretariat added: "Caspian interstate co-operation could become a model of effective interstate and interagency co-operation which would contribute towards effective conflict and incident prevention,"

Best practices of conflict prevention and conflict management in maritime security procedures, as well as applied mechanisms in maritime border surveillance operations were also discussed during the roundtable event, reads OSCE press release.-0-