Diplomacy of the Caspian littoral states

Several states in the Caspian region, including the five littoral states of the Caspian Sea, namely the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Azerbaijan use "ad hoc" diplomatic relations to build trust and goodwill as well as to boost the bargaining power of their governments.
Generally, the focus is to establish, design, and amend regional and international rules about the world system and the littoral states.
Mechanisms include hard power, soft power, and smart power to achieve hard security, soft security, and smart security.
Summits.
Diplomatic processes include repeated summits over the centuries:
Political cooperation.
Energy.
The Caspian Sea's oil resources are second only to those of the Persian Gulf. Security concerns in the Middle East and the consequent reluctance to invest there have increased the focus on the Caspian region and its energy resources.
The Caspian Sea basin reserves include 48 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves of 292 trillion cubic meters, the world's fourth largest gas reserve.
Pipelines.
The five states have not yet set resource exploitation rules. The main reason for these disputes and crises is how to transfer and export these resources.
Sources.
 