Photo: Alexandr Semyonov/TASS

The meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) kicked off in Sochi on Friday to discuss the issues of trade and economic, energy and transport cooperation, reports.

The ministerial meeting is the final event of Russia’s presidency in the organization.

The Russian side said over 24 years of the organization’s activity, this format has achieved a great potential needed to boost cooperation of the BSEC countries and bringing this cooperation to a new level.

One of the key tasks is to overcome the alarming tendencies in the Black Sea region’s economy: the trade between the countries of the region continues decreasing from 18% in 2010 to 14% in 2014. Another goal is to reinforce a financial basis and Moscow hopes to reach an agreement on the BSEC budget by December. Russia will also present a plan of cooperation in the energy sphere by the end of June 2017.

The BSEC is an international economic organization of 12 countries from the wider Black Sea area (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine). Established in 1992, the BSEC is an inter-governmental organization created with the aim to foster interaction and harmony among its member states, as well as to ensure peace, stability and prosperity encouraging friendly and good-neighborly relations in the Black Sea region.