Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 12
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
Discussions on the legal status of the Caspian Sea are held regularly and the next meeting is planned to be held in early January in Ashgabat, Khalaf Khalafov, Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister, told reporters Dec. 12.
He noted that meetings’ main issues are related to the preparation for holding the next Caspian summit.
Meanwhile, the Ad Hoc Working Group on the legal status of the Caspian Sea is also expected to initiate holding a ministerial meeting, and such a meeting can be organized, said the deputy foreign minister.
All these measures are aimed at adoption of a draft convention on legal status of the Caspian Sea during the summit, added Khalafov.
He also noted that negotiations on the date of the summit will probably be held later, while the ministerial meeting is likely to be held in Astana.
The Caspian littoral states (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran) signed a Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea in November 2003.
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 in July 1998. The two countries signed a protocol to the agreement in May 2002.
Moreover, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea and a protocol to it on Nov. 29, 2001, and Feb. 27, 2003, respectively.
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea on May 14, 2003.
As of today, summits of heads of the Caspian littoral states were held in 2002 in Ashgabat, in 2007 – in Tehran, in 2010 – in Baku and in 2014 – in Astrakhan.