Turkmenistan: Ashgabat Hosts Caspian Sea Meeting

A meeting to discuss the legal status of the Caspian Sea seabed is underway in Turkmenistan. Representatives of all five Caspian littoral states - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan are attending the talks in Ashgabat.

The 26th meeting of the ad-hoc working group at the deputy foreign minister level faces an uphill struggle to reach consensus on a Caspian territorial treaty, as there are multiple disputes over ownership of hydrocarbon-rich portions of the inland sea.

According to the Russian news agency Rosbalt, Iran remains insistent on dividing the seabed evenly among the five states, even though less than 17 percent of the shoreline runs along Iranian territory.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are also at loggerheads over ownership of three offshore areas. Only Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have an agreement to divide the Caspian Sea seabed "on principles of justice and mutual respect," the report added on November 4.