Azernews.Az

BAKU – Russia intends to take all efforts to speed up agreement on the Caspian Sea's legal status, the country's president, Dmitry Medvedev, was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying on Thursday.

"The establishment of a new legal status of the Caspian Sea, which would correspond to modern geopolitical realities, is the perennial issue of all Caspian summits," Medvedev told the participants at the Caspian summit in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.

"We have carried out certain work, and we have reached an agreement in principle on a range of the most important issues. As for further moves, I would like to assure you that we will take all efforts to achieve consent on all the points of our future agreements," the president said.

The delimitation of the seabed and water area, as well as the establishment of common shipping and fishing regulations are the key issues to agree upon, he said.

The status of the oil- and gas-rich inland sea has been a source of disagreement between Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The countries have yet to agree on how to divide the seabed. The Caspian's oil and gas reserves, believed to be the world's third largest, have also been a source of rivalry between Russia, Iran and the West.