Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend E.Huseynly / The Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Khalaf Khalafov, said on 10 May stated that settling the issue of reaching a multi-lateral ( Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Russia) agreement on legal status of Caspian Sea has been delayed. Touching upon the five-sided meeting on the legal status of the Caspian Sea on 23-24 April in Ashgabat, Khalafov stressed that bilateral agreements must be reached more promptly.
It was decided during the Ashgabat discussions to hold the next multilateral meeting of the working group on the legal status of the Caspian Sea in Tehran. Khalafov said that the meeting is planned to be held within the next three months. Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan reached an agreement on the legal status of the Caspian Sea and have signed bilateral and trilateral agreements. Turkmenistan and Iran have failed to come to an agreement.