Minister Ivica Dačić at the 46th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey Hakan Fidan was among the first speakers, which was his first participation in a multilateral gathering since taking office. Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, and the Republic of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, took part in the meeting, while other member states were represented at the level of deputy ministers.
During the 46th session of the Council, all decisions adopted during the six-month presidency of the Republic of Serbia were confirmed and efforts by our representatives that contributed to the revitalisation of certain mechanisms of this important regional forum were commended.
In the final remarks, Minister Dačić wished the Republic of Turkey much success during the BSEC presidency in the next six-month period, from 1 July 2023.
The speech by Minister Dačić at the 46th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member states of the Organization for Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is given in its entirety:
Esteemed Secretary General,
Dear colleagues,
Distinguished heads of delegation,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is an honor and a great pleasure to greet you today. At the end of our six-month chairmanship-in-office of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation we meet in a virtual format which is fully helped by the use of digital technology that we promoted as a priority area of cooperation among the member states.
Although virtual meetings cannot fully replace face-to-face meetings, this mechanism allows us to maintain active communication.
In the spirit of compromise and the need to maintain dialogue and cooperation, the Republic of Serbia assumed the six-month chairmanship-in-office of the Organization at the beginning of the year in very complex international circumstances. At a time when we were slowly recovering from the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, BSEC found itself facing a new challenge, at the epicenter of a new international crisis. This made our task within this forum more demanding, but also more necessary and significant. As we did in previous chairmanships, we continued to promote dialogue and relations of mutual respect. Preservation of expert cooperation, channels of communication and dialogue are set as imperatives. I believe that during the chairmanship we achieved a step more.
In the past period, our experts exchanged views and agreed on solutions in areas of common interest, striving for consensus, on which the goals of the Organization rest. It is unnecessary to emphasize the strategic, infrastructural and economic importance of the Black Sea region and its enormous potential. After more than thirty years of existence, BSEC remains an important element of the regional economic connectivity of countries in this part of Europe. Therefore, today, more than ever before, it is important for us to remember the core principles on which we established this Organization - cooperation, dialogue as well as responsible conduct by all actors.
At the beginning of the chairmanship, we highlighted several priorities on which we focused our activities. In line with the available capacities, we set too ambitious goals which thanks to the cooperation and constructiveness of your representatives, we still managed to achieve.
In terms of organization, we focused our activities on achieving greater efficiency of BSEC work and to that end, in addition to holding face-to-face meetings of the main and related bodies of the Organization, we also reaffirmed the mechanism of the Troika - with the significant support of the Secretary General Ambassador Comanescu and his team, as well as our Moldovan and Turkish colleagues. We continued to align our work with modern trends and achievements, in which the information technology sector and digitalization are at the forefront.
An initiative was launched to update the Economic Agenda, an important strategic document of the Organization, which will outline our next steps and, I hope, direct our future activities in a concrete, concise and practical way.
After a two-year break, on 1 June this year a meeting of the BSEC Business Council was held - an important member of our regional family and an important platform for dialogue between business communities of the member states. This meeting confirmed that the dynamics of our economic activities require close contact, exchange of information and intensive cooperation between business representatives and that this forum has the potential to achieve, if not surpass, these goals. In this context, the support of the BSEC Secretariat is encouraging as well as specific proposals by Turkiye, as the next chairmanship holder, for the improvement of the work of this body.
Distinguished colleagues,
The multidimensional character of our cooperation within the BSEC has enabled our experts to discuss and exchange experiences in the fields of culture, good governance and institutional improvement, transport, education and trade in the previous months. Some of them were considered from the viewpoint of the use of digital technology, which contributed to the acquisition of new knowledge but also to the establishment of new contacts between us in this particularly important area of interest today.
Today's extensive agenda of this meeting is the result of the intensive work of our experts and I am pleased to state that in the past period, with a constructive approach and creative solutions, we made a contribution so that the reports of the working groups in the previous two-year period be put on the agenda and reaffirmed at today’s meeting as well.
This is where BSEC's potential lies - that on the basis of expert cooperation it overcomes existing challenges and contributes to the achievement of goals of wider, global importance.
As part of the BSEC, the Republic of Serbia, being a reliable and active partner, will remain committed to improving our cooperation, the lives of our citizens and the development of our countries, recognizing that our Organization and the Black Sea region, today burdened with difficult challenges, have the capacity and modalities to participate in their solving.
Bearing in mind the complexity of the political situation in the Black Sea region, respecting all member states and their differences, in the past six months we managed to achieve the goals we set on 1 January when we assumed the chairmanship, focusing on what we all have in common and that is strengthening cooperation in areas that will enable the sustainable development of the Black Sea region and all its member states. As I said when I took over the chairmanship we can't always agree on everything but we can absolutely discuss it.
Thank you.