The President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, declared that long-term co-operation on the issue of Caspian Sea demarcation is in the interests of all five littoral states. During a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medevedev, Mr Berdimuhamedow suggested that all issues concerning the legal status of the Caspian Sea should be settled by the littoral states in terms of international law and cooperation.
Negotiations related to the demarcation of the Caspian Sea have been going on for a long time among the states bordering the Caspian - Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran - ITAR-TASS reports. The status of the Caspian Sea is the key problem. There are three major considerations affected by the Caspian Sea's status: access to mineral resources (oil and natural gas), access to fishing and access to international waters (through Russia’s Volga River and the canals connecting it to the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea).
