The presidents of the Caspian states of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan signed an agreement on security cooperation during their third summit on Thursday.
The summit on the legal status of the Caspian Sea was held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku and involved the signing of a joint declaration between the leaders of the five countries.
The status of the oil- and gas-rich inland sea has been a source of disagreement between the nations that border it 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 dispute between Russia, Iran and the West.
Bilateral agreements exist between Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to delimitate the bed of the northern part of the sea. Iran proposes dividing the sea into five equal parts, but Azerbaijan is against the initiative.
Russia intends to take all efforts to speed up the adoption of an agreement on the Caspian Sea's legal status, Russian Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.
The leaders discussed a range of other Caspian-related issues, including a possible five-year moratorium on sturgeon fishing. They also agreed to meet annually instead of tri-annually.
BAKU, November 18 (RIA Novosti)
