Officials of the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea signed a convention today in Kazakhstan that defines the legal status of that strategic sea, under which there are significant hydrocarbon reserves. Representatives of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed a document giving the Caspian Sea the legal status it had been deprived of since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The host of the ceremony, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said before the signing that it was a "historic event". "We can say that reaching a consensus on the status of the sea was difficult and required a lot of time, the negotiations continued for 20 years and a great and joint effort of all interested parties was necessary," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, a big supporter of the agreement, said the convention would have "epoch significance" and called for greater military cooperation among the countries of the Caspian basin. The agreement should also lead to a reduction in tensions in the region, which is estimated to contain almost 50 billion barrels of oil and almost 300.000 billion cubic meters of natural gas. According to the Kremlin, the agreement brought the largest part of the Caspian Sea under the common zone, and the water and underwater resources were divided between the five countries.
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