The 49th meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Convention on Legal Status of the Caspian Sea at the level of deputy foreign ministers of Caspian states opened in Ashgabat. The meeting was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the State Enterprise for the Caspian Sea Affairs under the President of Turkmenistan. During the first day of meeting, the heads of delegations outlined the positions of their states on certain provisions of the Convention on Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, designed to strengthen the legal norms for joint work, and exchanged views on a number of other issues of cooperation. As was emphasized, in the framework of the preparations for the next summit of the heads of Caspian states, much work had been done to practically implement the agreements previously reached between the leaders of neighboring countries. A number of key points of the Convention which is the basic international treaty that regulates the most important aspects of activities of the coastal states, including in areas of their national jurisdiction, have been agreed upon. The draft document also includes modern principles and norms of international law in the field of navigation, environmental protection and rational nature management, in particular, the use of biological resources of the Caspian Sea and the mineral resources of its bottom and subsoil, etc. As was noted, to date, the countries of the Caspian region have established cooperation in almost all the main areas of the interstate partnership. The Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea and the Protocols thereto, as well as the Agreement on the Conservation and Rational Use of Aquatic Biological Resources of the Caspian Sea and on Cooperation in the Sphere of Prevention and Elimination of the Consequences of Emergencies in the Caspian Sea have been signed. The Turkmen side actively contributed to the final Agreement text on Cooperation in the Field of Hydrometeorology of the Caspian Sea, the work on which was completed during Turkmenistan’s chairmanship of the Coordinating Committee for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring of the Caspian Sea Pollution. Currently, a package of new regulatory and legal documents are being prepared, which is to be signed in a five-sided format. They include the Agreements for Cooperation between the Caspian states in trade, economic and transport sectors developed by the Turkmen side in accordance with the proposals of President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, put forward at the Summit of the Heads of Caspian States, held in 2014 in Astrakhan (Russian Federation). In addition, two Protocols are being worked out, which will supplement the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Security in the Caspian Sea, signed at the III Summit of the Heads of Caspian States in 2010 in Baku (Azerbaijan). These documents will create a legal framework for cooperation between the competent authorities of the neighboring countries in such areas as combating the illegal extraction of biological resources (poaching), and ensuring the navigation safety. Tomorrow, the work of meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the development of the Convention on Legal Status of the Caspian Sea will be continued.