TEHRAN – In a sign of the rising importance of the Caspian Sea in Iran’s foreign policy, the Iranian foreign minister created a new diplomatic post focusing on the Caspian Sea. 

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has issued an order appointing Alireza Jahangiri as his deputy for the Caspian Sea affairs.

Jahangiri holds a PhD in international law and previously served as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Iran’s permanent envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and the Foreign Ministry’s director general for international law.

Jahangiri is expected to coordinate issues related to Iran’s relations with the littoral states of the Caspian Sea, whose importance has been on the rise in recent years. 

Also, the new deputy could handle discussions surrounding the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea given his background in international law. 

Under President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran has been seeking to boost economic relations with neighboring countries, including those of the Caspian Sea. 

Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov visited Tehran in late April and met with Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber to discuss ways to strengthen economic cooperation.

In a joint meeting with the visiting Kazakh prime minister, Mokhber said economic cooperation is not commensurate with the political cooperation that the two countries currently enjoy. 

“In agreement with the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, it was decided to raise the level of relations to 3 billion dollars,” Mokhber said, according to IRNA. 

He added, “In two meetings with the presence of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan and the accompanying delegation, good decisions were made and it was decided to quickly develop a temporary road map between Iran and Kazakhstan.”

The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan thanked Iran for inviting him to visit Tehran. “Now the long negotiations ended with good agreements, the details of which were fully explained by the First Vice-president of Iran.”

He noted, “Iran and Kazakhstan have good neighborly and friendly relations. Constructive political dialogues have been established between the two countries and economic and cultural relations are developing.”

During a meeting between Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov and Mokhber on the sidelines of the Second Caspian Economic Forum in Moscow in October 2022, the Kazakh side emphasized the importance of improving the level of cooperation between Tehran and Astana in oil swap, as well as industry, agriculture, scientific and cultural sectors.