Kazakhstan, Astana, August 21 / Trend K. Konyrova /
The Kazakh, Russian, Azerbaijani and Turkmen presidents will discuss the status of the Caspian Sea at a summit in Aktau.
According to preliminary information, the meeting will be held on September 13, the Kazakh presidential press-service told Trend .
The agreement on the informal meeting between the presidents of the four Caspian countries was reached during a phone conversation between Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on August 18.
"The agreement on the informal meeting between the Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Russian and Turkmen presidents was reached during this conversation. The development of inter-state relations, the interaction between Caspian countries and a negotiation process on the status of the Caspian Sea will be discussed at the meeting," the Kazakh presidential press-service said earlier.
The status of the Caspian Sea is determined by the 1921 and 1940 treaties between the Soviet Union and Iran. The negotiation process to establish a new legal status still continues. Several countries have concluded bilateral agreements.
In July 1998 Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of the seabed in the north part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use. Protocol to the Agreement was signed in May 2002.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian seabed and protocol to this agreement on November 29, 2001 and February 27, 2003. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the point of junction of the boundaries between adjacent plots of the Caspian seabed on May 14, 2003.
Iran suggested dividing the Caspian Sea equally (20 percent for each side). Azerbaijan refused this suggestion. The outcome of this would be Iran receiving one third of Azerbaijan's segment of the Caspian Sea.
The coast-sharing countries signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea in Tehran in November 2003.
The new legal status of the Caspian Sea is planned to settle the corresponding Convention, the text of which is being agreed at meetings of the special work group.
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Preliminary date for Caspian countries' summit determined
According to the preliminary information, the meeting will be held on September 13, the Kazakh presidential press-service told Trend News.
