Azerbaijan, Baku 21 January / Trend corr. S.Agayeva / Azerbaijan expects a constructive position from Turkmenistan in definition to the status of the Caspian Sea.
"We hope that Ashgabat will take a more constructive position in definition of the status of the Caspian Sea, then we can expect serious progress in the issue," Khazar Ibrahim, press-secretary to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, stated on 21 January.
The chances of positively tackling the issue from the Turkmenistan side have increased since the latest negotiations in Ashgabat between both countries.
During a visit of the Azerbaijani delegation to Turkmenistan to take part in the first meeting of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, both sides held multilateral exchange of opinions in order to approach the Caspian Sea issue.
The approaching of positions concerning the status of the Caspian Sea will play a key role for further development of bilateral cooperation, Ibrahim said.
Contradiction between both countries arouse due to disputable fields in the Caspian Sea and definition of border lines.
The coastal states signed the Framework convention to protect the marine environment of the Caspian Sea in November 2003. Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement on delimitation of the depth of the north part of the Caspian Sea in July 1998, as well as the protocol to the agreement in May 2002. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on delimitation of the depth of the Caspian Sea and protocol to the agreement on 29 November 2001 and 27 February 2003 respectively. An agreement on the border depth of the Caspian Sea was signed between Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan on 14 May 2003.