The 29th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation took was held in Yerevan on December 12. Armenian Foreign Minister, BSEC Chairman-in-Office Edward Nalbandian chaired the sitting.
In the working session of the meeting, the Ministers made statements on issues regarding the region and the Organization.
They underlined the importance attached to the implementation of the BSEC Economic Agenda Towards and Enhanced BSEC Partnership as the roadmap of the Organization to face the new challenges of the globalize world. During the Armenian Chairmanship the process of the Action Plan of the Working Groups with the short-listed medium-term priorities identified in the Economic Agenda continued. The participants emphasized the need to maintain the sustained joint efforts of the BSEC member states, related bodies and the Permanent International Secretariat to effectively implement the priorities of the Economic Agenda.
In their statements the participants underlined the need to continue the ongoing process to further enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, visibility, institutinonal capacity and human resources of BSEC, its Permanent International Secretariat and Related Bodies.
At the Council meeting, the importance of developing viable projects which could contribute to sustainable development in the region was highlighted.
At the closing session of the meeting, the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs adopted Resolutions, Decisions and Recommendations on various issues. The Council decided to grant the World Tourism Organization a Sectoral Dialogue Partnership status within BSEC. The Council also renewed the Observer status of the CzechRepublic, the Republic of Croatia, the State of Israel, the SlovakRepublic and the United States of America as well as the Sectoral Dialogue Partnership status of Hungary and the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions in Europe (CPMR) for another period of two years.
At the conclusion of the meeting the Republic of Armenia handed over the chairmanship-in-office of BSEC to the Republic of Bulgaria. Bulgaria will officially assume the Chairmanship as of January 1, 2014 for a period of six months until June 30, 2014.
