Leaders of countries with Caspian Sea coasts have signed an agreement on territorial claims under dispute since collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Clarification of at least some legal questions will ease impediments to oil and gas exploration and development and to pipeline construction.
Leaders of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan signed the agreement Aug. 12 at a summit in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
Speeches by signatories indicated it was little changed from a draft made public in Russia last December defining territorial waters as ending 15 nautical miles from countries’ shorelines an extending a further 10 miles for fishing.
Demarcation of the sea beyond territorial waters depends on future negotiations.
The agreement allows pipeline development to be approved through bilateral agreements between nations involved. But all the nations can object to pipeline work on ecological grounds.
The agreement also prohibits the presence of military forces other than those of the littoral states.
