Russia has pledged to deepen co-operation with Iran and its Central Asian neighbours through a landmark deal on carving up the Caspian Sea, potentially paving the way for long-stalled energy projects and confirming Russia’s military supremacy over the world’s biggest lake.
The Caspian’s littoral states of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan have quarrelled for more than two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union over how to divide the strategically-important landlocked sea. On Sunday they signed a deal to manage a resource that holds large hydrocarbon resources and is a bridge between Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
“This is an exceptional summit with milestone significance for the fate of the Caspian Sea,” Russian president Vladimir Putin told his fellow leaders. “This gives an opportunity for us to be on a different level of partnership to develop our co-operation in various new directions.”