Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization's Council of Foreign Ministers held a meeting in Istanbul on Saturday. Azerbaijan was represented at the discussions by a delegation headed by Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

A day before the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement urging BSEC member states to avoid discussing "politicized issues" at the meeting, the ministry's website said. Moscow offered to focus on economic and social issues.

"We consider BSEC as a single full-format cooperation platform in the Black Sea region," the statement said. "Russia is interested in maintaining its leading position. This approach is related to increasing the role of the Black Sea region in international political and economic reality, the strategic importance of its geopolitical location, availability of a resource base and human potential. It is necessary for all member states to focus on strengthening the realization of projects and fully avoid including alien politicized issues in the agenda."

Addressing the meeting, Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said conflicts and political differences within BSEC impede the development of successful economic cooperation. She expressed hope that the BSEC would focus on addressing the differences that exist between the BSEC member countries.

Panjikidze stressed the role of the BSEC in deepening economic cooperation in the region. She highlighted the need to deepen trade relations, which is a prerequisite for successful regional economic cooperation.

The participants discussed the cooperation of the organization's member states, the status of implementation of standing resolutions, decisions and recommendations of the ministerial council, as well as collaboration of the BSEC and the European Union. The Council also mulled the course of execution of the document on updating the future economic agenda, the activities of BSEC working groups, renewal of the BSEC observer status and financial issues.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu passed on the BSEC presidency to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Khryshchenko for the first six months of 2013.

Khryshchenko said Ukraine would pursue the successful activities which Turkey fulfilled during its presidency.

The Istanbul-based BSEC was established in 1992 on Turkey's initiative to promote development of cooperation in trade, economy, transport, tourism and environmental protection among the Black Sea region countries. 12 countries are included in the organization: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.