(L-R) Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov pose after the signing ceremony at the 5th Caspian Summit in Aktau on August 12.
Leaders from Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have spent over 20 years trying to negotiate a deal over how to manage the ownership of the Caspian Sea and its surrounding areas. On Aug. 12, in the Kazakh city of Aktau, they finally signed a legal convention. But despite the fanfare surrounding the summit, the agreement will not resolve all of these countries' complex and contentious debates over the Caspian Sea. Some Caspian Context The Caspian Sea is a geopolitically strategic body of water, both in terms of its location and its resources. Situated in a transcontinental zone between Europe and Asia, it has historically been a key trade and transit corridor between eastern and western powers.
