Azernews.Az

The Caspian Sea belongs to the five littoral states - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran - and other countries should not be allowed to "take root" in the basin, the Iranian foreign minister was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying.

Ali-Akbar Salehi told a news conference after talks with his Kazakh counterpart Yerzhan Kazykhanov that non-littoral states should be prevented from interfering and having military presence in the Caspian region.

On the Caspian legal status, Salehi said a final agreement is to be reached strictly on the basis of a consensus.

He said the next meeting of experts to discuss the status issue is to be held in Astana soon, voicing hope that discussions on a relevant convention will be beneficial.

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 five states, even though its coast accounts for less than 14 percent.