Azerbaijan, Baku, April 25 / Trend /
The Caspian-littoral states have made new proposals and have compromised on the wording of some provisions of the draft convention on the legal status of the sea, a statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website following the 32nd meeting of the Special Working Group on the Convention said today.
The heads of delegations presented their countries' positions on key elements of the legal status of the Caspian Sea and various aspects of maritime cooperation during the meeting, which ended in Tehran yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The 32nd session of the Special Working Group on the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea was held by the deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian-littoral states in Tehran on April 23-24.
Delegations from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan attended the meeting.
The importance of the rapid execution of the decisions of the Third Caspian Summit (Baku, 2010) was stressed at the meeting.
In this regard, mutual understanding was reached for all parties to present the mapping schemes at the next meeting of the Special Working Group.
The sides stressed the positive results of the 32nd meeting of the Special Working Group and thanked the Iranian side for its timely and successful holding.
The delegations stressed the need to maintain the pace of negotiations to intensify the coordination of a draft on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.
The 33rd regular session of the Special Working Group will be held in Baku. The sides agreed to set a date for its holding through diplomatic channels within one month.
The littoral 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 signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use.
On Nov. 29, 2001 and Feb. 27, 2003, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the demarcation of the Caspian Sea.
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea on May 14, 2003.