New body seeks to promote EU ties with Caucasus-Caspian region

"This is the beginning of our Commission. We have talked about ways to deepen our relations with the region and the neighbors, particularly the region and the EU," the chairman of the Commission, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, told a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

The meeting adopted the Commission charter which states that it is a civilian initiative.

Rupel stressed the energy dimension to the Caucasus-Caspian region, but also underlined the importance of programs and initiatives which can help resolve frozen conflicts and boost the good governance in the region.

"Suggestions were made to focus on the Armenian-Turkish dialogue and on the Azeri-Kazakh and Azeri-Turkmen cooperation as well as Azeri-Armenian dialogue. We have also said that we should not underestimate the role of Russia, we should not underestimate the role of Iran and certainly not the role of China in the Caucasus-Caspian region," said Rupel.

Seventeen eminent persons sit on the Commission, including Abbas Maleki from Iran, Joschka Fischer from Germany, Madeleine Albright from USA and Mikhail Margelov from Russia.

The Commission has two deputy chairmen Artur Baghdasarian from Armenia and Mustafa Aydin from Turkey. IRNA