MNA � Russian Deputy FM Karasin says that the Caspian five summit in Kazakhstan is expected to end with a convention stipulating the legal status of the basin.







The Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which is expected to be adopted by the leaders of the �Caspian five� summit in Aktau, clearly captures the principles of development of naval forces and Russia�s interests will also be taken into account, RIA Novosti quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying on Thursday.

The presidents of the five coastal states will meet on August 12 in Aktau (Kazakhstan) at the fifth Caspian summit to take stock of many years of negotiations on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. As expected, the main outcome of the summit should be a Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, accompanied by a number of cabinet members, is slated to arrive in Kazakhstan on Saturday to participate in the Caspian Sea Summit.

Karasin, in an interview with the newspaper �Kommersant�, noted that he did not agree with the statement that only Russia is actively expanding its military forces in the Caspian Sea.

The question of determining the legal status of the Caspian Sea have gained relevance after the collapse of the USSR, when the emergence of new subjects of international law � Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan � raised the question of the delimitation of the Caspian between the five countries. The difficulty of determining the status of the Caspian sea are related, in particular, with the recognition of its lake or sea, the delimitation of which is governed by different provisions of international law.

The Caspian, the world�s largest enclosed body of water, is rich in hydrocarbon deposits. Once it was divided between the Soviet Union and Iran. But in 1992 the USSR�s collapse created four successor states with Caspian shores � Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan � and threw the status of the sea into a generation-long morass of diplomatic wrangling.