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BSEC Secretary General Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos: â€œAzerbaijan carried out intensive activity during its presidencyâ€

22 October 2009 14:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva â€“ APA. Azerbaijan handed over the presidency in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation to Bulgaria in a ceremony within the 21st BSEC Ministerial Council in Baku, Azerbaijanâ€™s deputy foreign minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev told journalists in a press conference dedicated to the results of the meeting, APA reports. He said Bulgaria will take BSEC presidency from November 1, 2009 until May 31, 2010. According to the agreement reached at the meeting, BSEC will hold its meetings twice a year â€“ within an interval from January to July and from July to January. Mammadguliyev said the participants positively appreciated the Azerbaijanâ€™s presidency in BSEC and urged to increase effectiveness of the organization. â€œAzerbaijan is continuing its activity toward this and early November Baku will host the meeting of ministers of communication and information technologies under the Bulgariaâ€™s presidencyâ€.

Bulgarian foreign minister Rumiana Jeleva said her country would make increasing of BSEC effectiveness and improvement of BSEC-EU relations its priorities. It considers to involve the European Commission in BSEC activity and to strengthen relations with Austria, Germany, France and the Czech Republic, which have an observerâ€™s status in the organization.

BSEC Secretary General Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos said the 21st meeting of BSEC Ministerial Council in Baku was successful. â€œI am hopeful that this meeting will have positive impact on the development of the organization. Azerbaijan carried out very intensive activity during its presidency. It put forward series of proposals to improve effectiveness of the organization and we will discuss these proposals during the Bulgarian presidencyâ€.