CONFERENCE ON "WIDER BLACK SEA: PERSPECTIVES FOR INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL SECURITY"
armradio.am
17.12.2007 13:28
International Conference entitled "Wider Black Sea: Perspectives for
International and Regional Security" will be organized by the Armenian
International Policy Research Group (AIPRG) on JANUARY 14-15, 2008.
The Wider Black Sea region as a political and strategic whole is
greater than the sum of its individual parts and lies in the heart
of legitimate geo-strategic interests of the main international and
regional players. The major stakeholders of the region lack clear set
of objectives and largely shared understanding of the Wider Black Sea,
there is no formulated and generally shared long-term political or
political-military framework for securing the stability of the region
in the face of existing frozen conflicts, differing perceptions of the
economic and security challenges, shortage of well-developed regional
institutions, civilization and cultural discrepancies, etc. Thus,
the growing debate on the Wider Black Sea region is reasoned by the
following major arguments:
– The formula of democratic integration and collective security will
help to bring peace and stability to the region.
– The region is of enormous importance for energy supply and energy
transit from the Caspian and Central Asia to European markets.
– The region is a large market with huge economic potential, which
would benefit tremendously from regional integration.
The Conference aims at enhancing the debate on the concept of the
Wider Black Sea involving international and regional academic and
political circles; bringing together differing evaluations and
views on the Wider Black Sea to pave a way for discussing security
perspectives in the light of a possible political-military strategy;
as well as discussing the compatibility of Armenia’s Foreign policy
and security strategy with the concept of the Wider Black Sea region
and the NATO strategy as stated in Riga in 2006.