Turkmenistan's naval base on Caspian Sea will aim to protect country's oil and gas wells: expert

"The issue of solving the status of the Caspian Sea will be discussed for a long time," said Hagverdiev.

He said that resolving the status of the Caspian Sea depends on all littoral states. The parties must reach a unanimous agreement - "either to divide the bottom or either bottom or the sea."

Speaking at an expanded Security Council meeting, the President stressed that Turkmenistan, along with land borders also has a long maritime border, which must be carefully guarded, Turkmen television reported.

Berdimuhammedov instructed the heads of military and law enforcement ministries and departments "to effectively combat the smugglers, terrorists, and any other forces which will attempt to violate the state maritime border of Turkmenistan, or to create an unstable situation there."

Turkmenistan has not yet defined the Caspian Sea borders  with other states. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have no claims to one another as to dividing the bottom of the Caspian Sea.

There are both bilateral and trilateral agreements between these countries. The parties have also agreed to determine the coordinates of the median line. The issue is yet to be agreed with just two countries - Turkmenistan and Iran - due to which the status of the Caspian Sea has not yet been defined so far.

Azerbaijan was the first the Caspian Sea country to begin to set the limits of the world's largest lake and define the limits of control over it. First, Azerbaijan announced the accessibility of its sector of the Caspian Sea on on Sept. 20 in 1994 by signing an international contract ("The Contract of the Century") with Western companies on a PSA model - production sharing agreement. This has also been reflected in the Basic Law of Azerbaijan dated 1995.

/Trend News/