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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

BSEC useful mechanism for building trust

Belgrade, 13 December 2016

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic said today, after the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organisation for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) held in Belgrade, that this organisation should focus even more in the future on common interests of Member States.

Ahmet Yildiz and Ivica Dacic

Author: mfa.gov.rs

Speaking at a press conference, Dacic said that this does not only mean geographical connecting of the countries, but looking for common interests, and added that Serbia, as the youngest Member State of the organisation, is ready to give full contribution to its work.

The First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia conveyed gratitude to Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, whose country presided over BSEC before Serbia and recalled that Turkey takes over the presidency as of 1 January.

Noting that the Belgrade conference was successful, Dacic underlined that BSEC is an organisation that deals with economic issues, but that it is not devoid of political topics, which is why it is necessary to have patience and a special approach in order to be able to make decisions.

Some decisions have been made in Belgrade, and one of them is to accept a donation of the Russian Federation in the amount of $1 million, Dacic said and added that BSEC has 12 Member States and that it will mark its 25th anniversary next year.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ahmet Yildiz said that his country is honoured to take over presidency from Serbia, whose work in the previous six months he described as very successful.

Yildiz said that one of the priorities of Turkey’s presidency will be the finalisation of the process of reforms within the organisation.

He announced that a summit will be held in Istanbul in June next year as part of Turkey’s BSEC presidency, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of BSEC.

Secretary General of BSEC Michael Christides said that despite difficulties and bilateral tensions that might exist, this organisation has been a very useful tool for building trust for 25 years already.