Contested Waters: Implications of the 2018 Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea and the Future of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline

The dispute between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan over the delimitation of the Caspian Sea has been one of the focal points of relations between the two states and has had negative spillover effects for the region. The conflict prolonged the process of determining a new status for the sea, as the parties failed to build mutually beneficial bilateral relations, and the implementation of regionally important transportation projects such as the Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP) have been delayed. However, the signing of a new Convention on the status of the Caspian Sea in 2018 in Aktau, was met with optimism for the delimitation of the seabed and the construction of the TCP. The present research aims to find out whether the new Convention of 2018 on the status of the Caspian Sea resolved the long-standing dispute between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan and to assess the potential of implementing the TCP under the new conditions.