The Kremlin has announced that they see no need for signing a new treaty with Ukraine on the Sea of Azov.
“So far, there has been no position in this case. There is an international legal basis for this matter, and it continues to be in effect. It is this very thing that needs to be taken into consideration,” Dmitriy Peskov, press secretary to the president of the Russian Federation, has told journalists.
Olena Zerkal, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister for European Integration, announced earlier that the denunciation of the 2003 treaty between Russia and Ukraine on cooperation in using the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait may lead to a new territorial dispute involving the delimitation of the Sea of Azov.
“The treaty itself is indeed composed of five articles, one of which has never been implemented, that is the delimitation of the Sea of Azov has never been carried out. From the viewpoint of additional rights, Ukraine will not get anything [by denouncing the treaty] but we can get into a new territorial dispute with the Russian Federation as to how to do the delimitation of the Sea of Azov,” she said during a talk show named “Freedom of Speech” that was broadcast live on October 29 night.
She said that Ukraine’s lawsuit against the Russian Federation is based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea even though there was a bilateral treaty with Russia.
“Indeed, I think that that treaty was not compiled in accordance with the law from the viewpoint of the Convention on the Law of the Sea; however, the questions to it have to be answered by the Tribunal, and we expect this answer to arrive as early as next year,” Zerkal said.
