CHISINAU, October 28 (RIA Novosti, Vladimir Novosadyuk) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko said Friday the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) in the Moldovan capital was a milestone for the organization.
Yakovenko told a news conference that new members - Belarus, the United States, Croatia, and the Czech Republic - had been granted BSEC observer status, that Russian-U.S. discussions on negotiations within the organization would be held in Moscow soon, and that some more countries might join the BSEC by the end of the year.
He said the organization was evolving in both political and economic directions, "filling political and economic gaps after new independent states had emerged in the region following large-scale geopolitical changes."
Yakovenko said economic cooperation within the BSEC had taken priority and that member-states had established a Greece-based bank, which had already financed more than 60 projects totaling $600 million.
Under BSEC legislation, Moldova handed over its chairmanship in the organization to Romania for half a year. Russia will assume the chairmanship from Romania in May-October 2006.
The Council of Foreign Ministers is the supreme authority of BSEC (Russia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro, and Ukraine).
