Russia, Ukraine to resume maritime border talks in July

Ukraine and Russia will hold a further round of talks on demarcating maritime boundaries between the two countries in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in Moscow in June, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday according to RIA Novosti.

The two countries agreed to continue talks during consultations in Kiev on January 21-22. The Russian delegation was led by Foreign Ministry envoy-at-large Alexander Golovin.

The two countries have been in dispute over the maritime boundary since the early 1990s. Ukraine insists that a border be drawn in the Kerch Strait, which links the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea, that matches the administrative border that existed between Russia and Ukraine in the former Soviet Union.

Russia maintains that inland water areas were not subject to borders in the Soviet era, and therefore this principle is not applicable.

Source: Transport Weekly