Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan do not need permission from the other Caspian states to build a pipeline connecting the two countries under the sea, Deputy Foreign Minister Xalaf Xalafov said.

“Under international law, such permission isn’t required,” he told reporters in Baku, the Azeri capital. 

The European Union is lobbying for construction of a trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline to deliver Turkmen gas to Europe via the so-called Southern Gas Corridor, which was formally launched in Baku last month.

Russia, which provides a quarter of the EU demand for gas, opposes the idea, citing environmental reasons.

Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimukhammedov, speaking at the Caspian summit in Russia’s Astrakhan on September 29, also said it’s the sovereign right of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build the pipeline.

The Caspian littoral states also include Iran and Kazakhstan. 

Bakudaily.Az