Astrakhan to host fourth Caspian summit

On  September 29, in the city of Astrakhan will host a summit of heads of states of the Caspian region.

According to the website of the President of Russia, the event will be attended by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia.

"It is planned to discuss the key issues of interaction between the littoral states of the Caspian Sea, implementation of decisions taken at the previous summit in Baku in 2010, outlines the priority areas of cooperation between the countries of the region in the future. Expected to sign a multilateral instruments,"  the report says.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin will have bilateral meetings with the heads of the Caspian countries.

The main issue for many years was discussed by the Caspian countries – it  is the legal status of the Caspian Sea. In this issue the country cannot come to a consensus.

At the same time, Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have resolved this issue among themselves and defined the boundaries of the national sectors of the day the sea, where they spend the exploration and production of oil and gas.

In addition to these issues, the parties discuss the issues of navigation, the determination of national economic zones, protection of biological resources, environmental issues, and others.

These topics are indirectly related to the issue of construction of underwater oil and gas pipelines, which are opposed to Russia and Iran.

Moscow and Tehran are against the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, which will allow the access of Turkmen gas to Europe, bypassing Russia and Iran. -02D-