Azernews.Az

Representatives of the Caspian littoral states have expressed satisfaction with their talks on the sea’s legal status held in the Kazakh capital Astana on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We solved a number of issues on some points. This means coming closer to a common target – an agreement on the text of the Caspian status convention," Russian President’s special envoy for delimitation of borders Alexander Golovin said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov, who attended the meeting of the ad hoc working group on drafting the convention on the Caspian status, said the coastal states are likely to reach agreement on the text of the convention in the near future.

"There is considerable progress on many issues of the text of the convention," Khalafov told Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency. "We were able to reach agreement on many issues. The negotiation process is of progressive nature, and more and more issues are being coordinated."

"The parties have the will and desire to resolve all issues regarding the Caspian Sea's status, their positions are similar, and we are optimistic on the coordination of the text as a whole," Khalafov said.

Turkmen negotiator Murat Atajanov said at the news conference that "my assessment of the negotiations is positive", adding that some agreements on important issues were reached during the taskforce’s meeting.

Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement in 2001 on dividing the Caspian’s northern area into national sectors, with Azerbaijan and Russia each possessing 19 percent, while the Central Asian state received 29 percent. However, the other two coastal nations, Iran and Turkmenistan, did not sign the agreement.

Iran wants all resources shared equally among the five states, even though its coast accounts for less than 14 percent.