Summit of heads of Caspian region states in Astrakhan

... the collapse of the USSR. The main reason for this is the substantial disagreements on the matter of dividing this inland sea’s shelf and the use of its waters and natural resources. The states took differing positions from the beginning. Thus Azerbaijan was prepared from the very start to divide not only the shelf but also the shipping area into sovereign sectors and to extract oil on the “sovereign” shelf without worrying about the consequences for this inland water space, which ...