On 1 July 2016 Serbia will take over from Russia its third six-month chairmanship of this organisation, which it will hand over to Turkey on 31 December 2016.
The BSEC was founded at the Summit of heads of state and government of eleven countries of the Black Sea region on 25 June 1992 in Istanbul.
From the very beginning, the members of this organisation have been Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Greece, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Albania and Serbia, according to a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.