Significant progress has been achieved in the preparation of a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, the Russian President Vladimir Putin's assistant Yury Ushakov said Sept.26, RIA Novosti reported.
Ushakov said the convention possibly may be signed at the Kazakhstan summit in 2015.
"Summit was preceded by a very intensive active work of experts, so we will be able to reach the results, which are very important for further cooperation in the Caspian Sea," he said. "Considerable progress has been achieved, which is close to a breakthrough in the preparation of a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. If the work in Astrakhan is successful, it will open a direct work to the signing of the convention at the next summit to be held in Kazakhstan," he said.
The development of the legal status of the Caspian Sea is a "key issue", which stands in front of the five Caspian littoral states, he said.
"A special working group was established for these purposes in 1996. In total, some 38 meetings were held, the last one of them was held in Moscow in August," Ushakov said.
Coastal 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 have signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to implement sovereign rights for subsoil use, and the protocol to this agreement was signed May 2002. Agreements on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and the protocol were signed November 29, 2001 and February 27, 2003 respectively.
Also, an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea was signed by Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia May 14, 2003.