RUSSIA IS BACK, PUTIN TELLS BLACK SEA SUMMIT
Sibel Utku Bila

Agence France Presse — English
June 25, 2007 Monday 8:22 PM GMT

Russia is back in the Balkans and around the Black Sea, President
Vladimir Putin told a regional meeting on Monday as delegates agreed
to increase cooperation in energy and trade.

"Everybody knows that the Balkans and the Black Sea region were of
special interest to us," Putin told reporters at the end of a summit
of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

"Russia, with its increasing potentials, is coming back to this
region. This is an obvious fact," he said. "This is in the interest
of Russia but also of our partners."

Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Russia’s
influence in the Balkans, for decades a communist stronghold, and in
the Black Sea region, diminished.

Putin was among 12 leaders who held talks in Istanbul Monday on ways
of boosting trade and energy cooperation in the area.

A joint declaration issued at the end of the summit acknowledged that
political problems between member states were hindering economic
exchange in the oil-rich region and called for their peaceful
settlement.

The member countries were ready "to deepen cooperation in the
area of energy … and cooperate with the European Union and other
international partners to ensure fair access to energy resources and
markets on a mutual basis for all interested countries," it said.

The region the BSEC covers is the world’s second-largest source of
oil and natural gas after the Gulf and is a major transit corridor
for energy supplies bound for Europe.

Speaking at the meeting, Putin, whose country has been accused
of using its oil and gas riches as a political weapon, called for
"strengthening the stability of the energy markets of the Black Sea,
also by expanding the practice of long-term contracts."

He said Russia favoured "the diversification of energy supply routes,
the creation of new insurance schemes and the share of financial risk
between partners through the exchange of shares."

The BSEC, which celebrated its 15th anniversary Monday, comprises
the Black Sea littoral states — Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia,
Turkey and Ukraine — as well as Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece,
Moldova and Serbia.

The members pledged to speed up work on upgrading transport
infrastructure, including a projected 7,500-kilometre (4,660-mile)
ring road along the Black Sea coast and regular maritime links between
their ports, with the aim of boosting tourism and trade.

Removing trade barriers was another priority, and they called for
closer cooperation with the EU and for the "earliest" settlement of
political tensions and territorial conflicts between member states.

"Political conflicts constitute an important hurdle in the way of
economic cooperation and development," Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said at a lunch he hosted at the summit.

"We have to make efforts to find a solution to political problems by
ourselves within the region," he added.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul held a rare bilateral meeting
with Vardan Oskanian, his counterpart from arch-foe Armenia, with
which Turkey has no diplomatic ties.

Armenia was the only country to be represented by a foreign minister.

All other nations sent presidents or prime ministers.

Oskanian urged Turkey to open the border between the two countries,
saying that such a move would help build confidence.

"If you are serious about dialogue, please open the border first,"
Oskanian said.

Turkey dealt a heavy economic blow to impoverished Armenia in 1993 as
it shut the border between the two countries in a show of solidarity
with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with Armenia over
the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ankara also refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan
because of Armenia’s international campaign to have the mass killings
of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century
recognised as genocide.

Turkish police stepped up security measures ahead of the summit,
and five people, among them Chechens, suspected of having links with
the Al-Qaeda network were arrested in Istanbul on Sunday.

The BSEC was established in 1992 to promote stability and economic ties
between nations that belonged to opposite camps during the Cold War.

It covers nearly 20 million square kilometres (7.7 million square
miles) with a population of 350 million people. Member states have
a total foreign trade volume of 300 billion dollars (223.5 billion
euros) a year.