Caspian States Sign Legal Regime Convention
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – In a summit in Kazakhstan, leaders of the five Caspian Sea littoral states signed a long-awaited convention on the legal regime of the body of water.
At the conclusion of the summit in the Kazakh city of Aktau on Sunday, the presidents of Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Azerbaijan signed the convention on the Caspian legal regime.
Also, senior officials from the participating states signed six other agreements: a protocol on cooperation in the fight against terrorism in the Caspian Sea, a protocol on cooperation in countering organized crimes, an agreement on economic interaction, a multilateral transportation agreement, an agreement on preventing incidents in the Caspian Sea, and a protocol on partnership among the border guards of the Caspian states.
In comments on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said although the convention on the Caspian Sea legal regime is settling a series of debates after 21 years, it starts a fresh round of talks on the outstanding issues and future agreements.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that the convention does not deal with delimitation of maritime boundaries or seabed shares.
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed water body on earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea.