ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 20, 2005 Thursday 4:27 AM Eastern Time
Burgas-Alexandroupolis-optimum way of pumping Russia oil to West
By Sergei Latyshev
ATHENS
A Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, plans of whose construction
came to the fore in the recent past, is the cheapest and safest way
of transporting Russian oil to the West, bypassing the Bosporus
Strait, said here on Wednesday evening Greek Deputy Foreign Minister
Evripidis Stilianidis.
He spoke before members of the country’s business and academic
communities with information on aims of the country’s chairmanship in
the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation. “The
Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline is the cheapest and safest
version of transporting oil to the West, bypassing the Bosporus
Strait, and plans of its construction received a new impetus in the
recent past,” the deputy minister emphasized. Greece actively strives
for the implementation of this tripartite project whose participants
also involve Russia and Bulgaria.
The high-ranking diplomat noted that the main aim of Greece’s
presidency in the Black Sea organization is to ensure rapprochement
between Black Sea countries and European structures as well as the
European Union. Greece gives much attention to its presidency in the
Black Sea organization, ending next April. “I can say that we regard
it as important as the presidency in the EU,” he stressed.
Members of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation include
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova,
Ukraine, Russia, Romania and Turkey.