The leaders of all five littoral states attended the fourth Caspian Sea summit in the Russian city of Astrakhan yesterday. The latest meeting was more significant than previous summits held in Turkmenistan in 2002, Iran in 2007 and Azerbaijan in 2010, as the parties reached important agreements on some issues. Yet, others continue to divide them, with implications that reach far beyond the Caspian.
At yesterday鈥檚 summit, the five littoral state presidents鈥擱ussia鈥檚 Vladimir Putin, Turkmenistan鈥檚 Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, Azerbaijan鈥檚 Ilham Aliyev, Iran鈥檚 Hassan Rouhani and Kazakhstan鈥檚 Nursultan Nazarbayev鈥攔enewed their commitment to keeping non-Caspian countries from establishing a military presence on the sea. Regarding their own armed forces, the sides agreed to ensure 鈥渁 stable balance of arms in the Caspian Sea,鈥� while calling for limiting military construction to 鈥渞easonable sufficiency, taking into account the interests of all parties without harming the security of each other.鈥� ...