Turkey to host BSEC summit next year

BSEC has been passing through a critical process, Sungar explained while speaking with a group of journalists here in Ankara on Friday.

The organization has many projects in almost every field, yet faces difficulties in implementing those projects due to either financial reasons or disputes between countries, Sungar said. Another point that he highlighted as a barrier in implementing projects was the absence of a monitoring mechanism within the organization. He voiced the need for getting study groups within the organization more efficient.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will represent Turkey at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC member states that will be held on Nov. 1-2 in Moscow.

Sungar said Gul will hold bilateral talks with Russian officials on the sidelines of the meeting and will discuss ways of improving the organization via reforms.

The foreign ministers of BSEC member states, meeting this week at the final event under the current Russian presidency of the organization, plan to formally adopt a memoranda put forth at a September meeting in Sochi. Among several measures, the two most prominent are memoranda to organize a 7,000-kilometer ring-road around the circumference of the Black Sea, and another to coordinate a network of links and cooperation among ports on the Black, Caspian and Mediterranean seas.

BSEC hopes to make a fresh start at the summit in Istanbul by implementing necessary reforms until then, Sungar said. So far the organization has not been involved in political issues and instead focused on issues concerning economic cooperation.

"This [attitude] needs to be abandoned. Decision-making mechanisms should be changed," he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

Since 1992 BSEC has united the littoral states of the Black Sea and other interested countries in common efforts to improve trade, communication and transport links among member states. Members include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The number of member states increased to 12 upon the accession of Serbia and Montenegro in April 2004.

Bringing to mind that BSEC's secretary-general, namely Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, was from Greece, Sungar said BSEC was one of the best platforms at which Turkish-Greek cooperation was reflected. He also said that a cultural committee would soon be established within the organization and expressed hope that this committee would serve to improve ties with many other countries.

BSEC member states last spring elected Chrysanthopoulos as secretary-general, and he assumed the post at the same time as the start of the Russian chairmanship, on May 1, 2006. Turkish Daily News