Head of Moldovan diplomacy attends meeting of BSEC Council of Ministers in Bucharest

Chisinau, 11 December /MOLDPRES/ - Deputy Prime Minister, acting Foreign and European Integration Minister Natalia Gherman today participated in the 33rd meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) member states, the Foreign and European Integration Ministry's information and media communication service has reported. 

The participants in the meeting, organised by the Romanian chairmanship-in-office, summed up the progress achieved during the mandate of Romania. Also, the event's agenda included subjects on assessing the sectoral cooperation, identifying ways of optimising the work of the international secretariat , as well as approval of the Organisation's budget for 2016. 

In her speech, Deputy Prime Minister Natalia Gherman stressed the need to consolidate BSEC's role at the Black Sea regionally and internationally, in order to get concrete results in the economic sector, that would meet expectations by citizens of the member states, in terms of economic growth, investments attraction and creation of jobs. In this respect, Gherman highlighted the necessity to implement projects in the transport infrastructure area, that would ensure extension and improvement of the present infrastructure and guarantee and region's sustainable development.  

Also, Gherman expressed full support of Moldova for a solid commitment on behalf of BSEC with the affiliated structures and its observers, especially EU. This would strengthen the potential of cooperation in the Black Sea region and contribute to enhancing stability and prosperity in the region. 

In her capacity of member of the BSEC ministerial troika, Natalia Gherman participated in a joint news conference with Romanian Foreign Minister, chairman-in-office of the Organisation Lazar Comanescu.

On visit to Bucharest, the Moldovan acting foreign minister also paid homage to victims of the Colectiv club tragedy. 

BSEC is a regional cooperation structure, the foundations of which were laid in 1992. At that time, the leaders of 11 states (Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Greece) signed the Bosphorus Declaration in Istanbul. The 11 states which signed the 1992 Declaration are founding states, and Serbia joined the organisation in 2001. Moldova exercised the BSEC chairmanship in the first half of 2015.

(Editor L. Alcaza)