Caspian Sea legal status on target for discussion

Negotiations on the legal status of the Caspian Sea are conducted regularly, and the issue of holding the next summit of heads of states in Russia is currently on the agenda, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov told reporters on Friday.

"Preparations for the summit were discussed during the bilateral Azerbaijani-Russian negotiations on the status of the Caspian Sea in March. There are still a number of open issues in determining the status of the sea that require consolidation," the deputy minister said.

It is also planned to hold a meeting of the working group of the five littoral states in Tehran after April 20, Khalafov said.

Azerbaijan hopes there will be some progress in this matter during the Tehran meeting.
The littoral states (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran) signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea in November 2003.

In July 1998, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use and in May 2002, a Protocol to the Agreement. On Nov. 29, 2001 and Feb. 27, 2003, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea.

Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea on May 14, 2003.


/Trend/