Black Sea region has huge potential - PABSEC head
By Nigar Orujova
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov said the Black Sea region is gaining great potential and spoke of regional transnational projects as he addressed a plenary session of the group, which opened in Baku on Tuesday.
The two-day 40th plenary session of PABSEC, which will adopt a declaration on the 20th anniversary of the BSEC, is focusing on economic, trade, technological, environmental, legal and political issues.
Asadov read out greetings from President Ilham Aliyev to the participants.
In his message, President Aliyev noted that the development of relations with the BSEC and its Parliamentary Assembly remains a major course of Azerbaijan's foreign policy.
"We have always highly appreciated the organization's contribution to deepening bilateral and multilateral cooperation of the regional countries and seeking solutions to common problems."
The president voiced hope that decisions to be adopted at the meeting would give an impetus to strengthening cooperation among member states and advance prosperity of these nations.
In his remarks, Asadov said BSEC promotes development of multilateral relations between the member states. The Azerbaijani parliament undertook PABSEC presidency six months ago and has made efforts for further expansion of the organization's activities.
The global political, environmental and economic issues cannot be solved without cooperation with other countries, Asadov said.
Military conflicts stand in the way of the region's development, Asadov noted. "We believe that solutions will be found to all the conflicts on the basis of fairness [and] within the territorial integrity of the countries," he said.
BSEC was established on June 25, 1992, on the basis of the Istanbul Summit Declaration and the Bosphorus Agreement signed by 11 heads of state. The key objective of the organization is to support multilateral political and economic initiatives in the Black Sea region. The organization comprises 13 countries.