TEHRAN, April 4 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will arrive in Kazakhstan on
Monday for talks with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan
Nazarbayev, his press service said on Saturday.
The two-day visit, Ahmadinejad's first visit to
Astana since his 2005 election, will focus on bilateral
relations, with special attention paid to the possible
introduction of a moratorium on sturgeon fishing in the Caspian
Sea.
Russia banned commercial sturgeon fishing in the
Caspian Sea in 2002 in an effort to combat the species'
declining population, which has been cut more than 95% in the
last 15 years due to rampant poaching.
Caspian Sea sturgeon accounts for almost 90% of the
world's black caviar. According to Russian experts, who said
illegal sales of the delicacy were cut in half in 2008, it will
take at least 10 years to restore the sturgeon population in
Russian waters.
The Caspian Sea's five littoral states - Russia,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran - have not
reached agreement on its status since the breakup of the Soviet
Union, complicating joint efforts in the region.
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