AZERBAIJAN TO TAKE OVER BSEC CHAIRMANSHIP FROM ARMENIA

454_4/14/2009_1
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

BAKU–Azerbaijan will send its Deputy Foreign Minister, Mahmud
Mammadguliyev, to Yerevan on April 20 to formally accept the rotating
chairmanship of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization from
Armenia, Armradio reported.

The transfer of the regional organization’s chairmanship from Armenia
to Azerbaijan will come at the end of a meeting of the BSEC Foreign
Ministers Council that will be chaired, for the last time, by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Nalbandian and Mammadguliyev are not scheduled to meet with any
Armenian officials on the sidelines of the meeting, the Azeri Press
Agency reported.

The meeting is expected to discuss strategies to minimize the impact
of the global economic crisis on the Black Sea Region. It will also
focus on further developing the effectiveness of BSEC and build on
guidelines for improving the BSEC’s mechanisms adopted at the previous
Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tirana on October 23.

The meeting will also appoint members to the BSEC Permanent
International Secretariat and deal with a number of regional projects
and funds operating under the auspices of the organization.

Yerevan assumed the chairmanship of the BSEC last November and has
focused on streamlining several issues, primarily dealing with energy
cooperation between the BSEC member countries.