Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend A.Gasimova / The Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Iran to attend a summit of the Caspian littoral countries. The head of state and his delegation were welcomed by the Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fatah.
A summit of five Caspian littoral countries, including Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, is starting in Tehran on 16 October. The gathering will focus on the Caspian legal status.
Caspian natural resources include over 500 types of plants and 854 types of fish (including 90% of the world sturgeon reserves). Oil reserves in correlation to the world's are not so huge (2%), but enough to cover the energy security of the region. After the collapse of the USSR the number of Caspian littoral countries increased from two to five and the adoption of a new agreement on the legal status of the Caspian was needed with the participation of all littoral countries.
The first summit of the Caspian littoral countries was held in Ashgabat in April 2002. The gathering adopted a decision to conduct the second summit in Tehran in 2003. However, the event has repeatedly been postponed every year.