Moldova transmitted the presidency of the Organization of the Black See Economic Cooperation (BSEC) to Romania during the thirteenth Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of this structure on Friday. Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan told the press that allongside the BSEC presidency, Romania will also take over the initiatives, programs and projects initiated and drawn up by Moldova , as for instance the fields of transport cooperation, development of infrastructures and energy systems between the countries of the region and member states of BSEC.
When asked if Chisinau has the chance of obtaining another source of energy than the Russian one through this arrangement, Stratan mentioned that not only the Republic of Moldova , but also its partners are concerned about this problem. He made it clear that the examination of possibilities of using other sources, other projects and programs, which could be implemented in the region with the participation of the international partners, as EU, the US or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), is possible with BSEC's intervention.
Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu stated in turn that BSEC is neither an impractical gesture of external policy nor a temporary commitment, but the single form of cooperation in the Black See region. “Due to its uniqueness, BSEC must be maintained, its importance needing to be reconsidered.”
Asked if BSEC can intervene in settling the frozen conflicts, especially the Transdniestrian one, Ungureanu said that these try to create “economic autonomies, which are parasitic economies built on illegal trafficking and illegal economic commitments.”
As to the negotiations on settling the Transdniestrian conflict, which were held in Chisinau and Tiraspol , the head of Romanian diplomacy stated that Romania 's participation is not a unilateral one.
“The Romanian side is equally author and participant in the Transdniestrian dispute settlement. The fact that the Transdniestrian issue exists today as subject of public interest is mainly due to Romania ”, Ungureanu underlined.
In his opinion, the projects for the Transdniestrian conflict settlement that have no results and the lack of a final text questions the BSEC capacity to represent one of the security administrators in the region.
A declaration regarding the relations between the BSEC and the European Union was adopted during the BSEC summit. The Moldovan Foreign Minister has signed an Additional Protocol on Terrorism Combating with his Romanian counterpart. // Reporter.MD