BLACK SEA FORUM IN ROMANIA ADOPTS FINAL STATEMENT
Rompres news agency
5 Jun 06
Bucharest, 5 June: The final declaration of the summit meeting of the
Black Sea Forum for Dialogue and Partnership held on Monday 5 June
in Bucharest provides for the creation of this forum as a “platform
for finalizing a common vision on the development of democracy and
a market economy”.
The declaration states that the need for this regional cooperation
initiative is the result of interdependence between the Black Sea
countries, highlighting that all these countries will have to strive
to secure peace, stability, prosperity and good neighbourly relations
by efficient use of the other forms already existing in the area,
particularly the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC).
The final document of the Bucharest summit meeting indicates that
the challenges to regional stability – terrorism, pollution, natural
calamities, trafficking and organized crime as well as unsettled
disputes – require a new, action-oriented strategy on the part of
the countries in this region.
The Black Sea Forum, the document says, will aim to promote
regional cooperation, good governance, democracy, human rights, the
consolidation of tolerance, the development of the civil society,
while offering better opportunities to young people through education
and scientific research. At the same time, it will seek new ways of
winning the active involvement of the business communities in all
these priorities and of accommodating the regional priorities with
those of the Euro-Atlantic community.
“There will be no standing bodies of the Forum and the Forum will
not overlap the cooperation mechanisms already in place in the region.
Tits operational framework will be minimal and flexible based on
partnerships,” reads the document.
Likewise, it mentions that further consultations will be held and
the Forum will be open to all the countries of the region and all
partners concerned, be them countries or international organizations.
The declaration also hails the interest on the rise of the European
Union in the Black Sea area and encourages the national authorities
of the countries in these region to make good use of the financial
instruments to be made available by the European Union beginning with
2007 – the European Neighbourhood Policy, the European Neighbourhood
Policy Instrument (ENPI) and the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA).
The document is signed by state officials from Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.
The Russian Federation is not a party to the Forum, but she was
represented in the summit meeting as an observer by Ambassador to
Bucharest Aleksandr Tolkaci.
Tolkaci did not deliver any message to the participants, but he said
at the end of the meeting that the position of the Russian Federation
remains the same as the one voiced by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Such regional initiatives are good, but there are too many of them,”
Tolkaci told journalists.
The Russian Federation voiced reservations over the need to establish
the Black Sea Forum, arguing that this initiative is overlapping
the BSEC.