By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend: The next meeting of the ad hoc working group for drafting the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea is planned to be held in Ashgabat in the second half of December, the Turkmen government said in a message Nov. 21. According to the message, the delegations of foreign ministries of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan are expected to participate in the meeting. The previous meeting was held at the level of deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian-littoral countries in Tehran in October, the message said. According to the message, the water management, navigation, transit, energy resources were discussed at that meeting. The Caspian states - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran - signed a Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea in November 2003. Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use in July 1998. The two countries signed a protocol to the agreement in May 2002. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea and a protocol to it on Nov. 29, 2001 and Feb. 27, 2003, respectively. Additionally, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea on May 14, 2003. Source: Trend.az