Bucharest Daily News, Romania
June 4 2006

Foreign affairs minister: No taboo themes at the Black Sea Forum
Andreea Pocotila

Basescu is seen with his Azeri conterpart, Ilham Aliyev, at te
presidential palace in Bucharest.

The Black Sea region is among Romania’s top concerns on matters of
foreign affairs, as today it holds a forum aimed at tackling the main
issues of the region.

The Black Sea Forum held today in Bucharest will include debates on
multilateral issues and there will be no taboo themes during the
presidential discussions, yesterday said Foreign Affairs Minister
Mihai Razvan Ungureanu in an interview with the Mediafax news agency.
“Unfortunately, the Black Sea region has a pretty bad image – that of
an area burdened by conflicts, an area where policies seem unclear or
subversive, not open and orientated towards cooperation,” was one of
the reasons Ungureanu gave for the organization of the Black Sea
Forum.
The Black Sea Forum is aimed to help build mutual trust in the
region, facilitate synergy between regional initiatives, identify and
initiate ideas, promote pragmatic regional projects that meet the
actual needs of the region and generate a mutual awareness dialogue
and share lesson learned by the region with the extra regional
partners, says the event’s presentation. The forum will be based on
active and open dialogue between institutions and civil society
within the Black Sea region, as well as with European and
Euro-Atlantic partners.
The event’s purpose is to create a platform for cooperation and
commitment to development of a regional strategy and a common vision,
as manifestation of a new political vision, and to identify
coordination opportunities based on this vision.
Ungureanu said the Romanian initiative of organizing a Black Sea
Forum drew the attention of European leaders, as many representatives
of foreign affairs ministries announced their participation at the
event. He pointed out that these officials will transform the
summit’s message into a political guideline of the European Union.
“Romania is now a NATO member, it is getting ready to become a member
of the EU, it will be country on the cusp of the two clubs, the
European and the Euro-Atlantic,” Ungureanu said, adding that it is
time for the Black Sea region to be included on the agenda of serious
problems of both NATO and the EU.
The minister underlined that cooperation is rare in the Black Sea
region and there are no institutions that can guarantee or activate
collaboration.
“Indeed, the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (OCEMN)
has several successful projects that have functioned and are
functioning, but they are insufficient for the energies invested in
this format of cooperation,” said Ungureanu.
The Black Sea forum is intended to create a reflex of dialogue, and
dialogue means trust, while the latter generates cooperation,
explained Ungureanu.
“It is a Romanian idea, organized by Romania, but for a general
benefit,” said the official.
Ungureanu said there is not an incompatibility between the regional
dialogue on the Black Sea area and the internationalization of this
issue.
“International policy stopped isolating parts of the globe, it does
not hide them anymore behind tall fences, for them to be solved
through the minimum contribution of two or three actors;
globalization means drawing everybody’s attention to complicated
themes,” Ungureanu explained. The minister said globalization implies
the involvement of world players such as the Russian Federation, the
United States and China.
“The Black Sea has a global destiny, it can become not only a
European or continental sea, but a sea of the world,” Ungureanu said,
adding that it is a place where several civilizations converge and it
can either be an energetic bridge, a political one or an amalgamation
of economic factors.
“Everybody needs the Black Sea,” Ungureanu added.
Asked what gives him the guarantee that the forum will manage to ease
dialogue between regional leaders, Ungureanu’s main argument was that
nothing like this has ever been initiated: “It is the first bold step
forward.” However, he added the journey will not end until dozens of
similar steps have been taken, using the Romanian initiative as a
model.
Asked if instead of an active and cooperative dialogue the forum
might witness quarrels and arguments, Ungureanu said such things will
not happen because the region is mature enough and it only needs for
this maturity to be recognized.
Representatives from Armenia, the Republic of Moldova, Azerbaijan,
Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Greece, and Russia were
invited to the forum. Officials form European and international
organizations will also attend the event.
By yesterday no representative of Russia had confirmed his or her
presence at the forum, according to the list of participants released
yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Russia has always been
reticent about attending and consenting to agreements regarding the
Black Sea. President Traian Basescu last year said it is time for the
Black Sea to cease being a Russian lake.
The list of participants at the Black Sea Forum includes Armenian
President Robert Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliev.
Kocharian and Aliev are slated to meet on the sidelines of the summit
in Romania, for talks over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh,
which is inside Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic Armenians,
who have run it since an uneasy 1994 cease-fire ended six years of
full-scale fighting.
Kocharian on Saturday dampened expectations for today’s meeting with
his Azerbaijani counterpart, again accusing Azerbaijan of being
belligerent and insincere about peacefully resolving the nearly
two-decade conflict over the disputed area.
Talks held between the two leaders in France in February ended in
failure, despite international mediators’ involvement, and the lack
of resolution has hindered development throughout the strategic
Caucasus region.
Sporadic border clashes have grown more frequent.
“We are discussing a variation that, by my reckoning, allows a
long-term and peaceful resolution. But I have modest expectations for
this meeting,” Kocharian told reporters.
“The impression is forming that the Azerbaijani side is not fully
devoted to peaceful resolution of the conflict, which the
militaristic statements heard in Baku demonstrate,” he said.
Aliev’s spokesman, Novruz Mammadov, meanwhile accused Armenia of
stoking tensions on the eve of the meeting of the two presidents in
Romania and said Yerevan was not prepared for serious dialogue.
“On the one hand, (Kocharian) agreed to such a meeting, but on the
other, he is already anticipating no results. I think that Kocharian
wants to just protect himself,” Mammadov said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress