Caspian Sea legal status group to meet in September

The special working group on the Caspian legal status would meet here on Sept. 12-13 at the level of deputy foreign ministers, an Azeri official said on Friday. Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said that the group would continue discussions on a draft Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. A subsequent summit on the Caspian Sea will be held in Russia, with the date yet to be scheduled, he said. "Russia believes it is necessary to undertake serious work to reach certain agreements for holding a summit and only after this to arrange a schedule," Khalafov said. Caspian littoral countries -- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran -- have been disputed over the definition of the legal status and regime of the Caspian Sea since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Its final legal status needs to be determined by unanimous agreement among all the littoral states