The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) met in Odessa on 21 June 2013 at the 28-th Meeting of the Council of Ministers, which was chaired by H.E. Mr.Leonid KOZHARA, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, acting BSEC Chairman-in-Office.
The Council summed up the half-year activities of the Organization under the Ukrainian Chairmanship. During the Ministerial Meeting the Heads of Delegations of the Member States, representatives of the BSEC Related Bodies, Observers and Sectoral Dialogue Partners delivered statements, discussed the current developments and prospects of the cooperation in different spheres and exchanged their views on issues of the future of the Organization.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in his statement gave assessment and views of the Ukrainian Chairmanship on the outcomes of the BSEC activities during the last half-year period. In this context he outlined the main priorities that were identified by Ukraine for its Chairmanship, which included intra-regional trade, transport, protection of the environment, humanitarian and cultural cooperation as well as some other key areas of activity of the Organization within the framework of the calendar of events during the Ukrainian Chairmanship-in-Office.
In this context the Meeting of the BSEC Ministers in charge of Economy held in Yalta on 23 May 2013, the Meeting of the BSEC Ministers of Transport held in Odessa on 29 May 2013, many Working Group meetings, workshops and other events in different spheres were highlighted.
During the Council Meeting, Ukraine was appointed as a Country-Coordinator of the Working Group on tourism as well as the Working Group on trade and economic development. Ukraine also will assume its responsibility as the Country-Coordinator of the Working Group on transport for the next two-years period.
At the end of the Meeting the Chairmanship-in-Office was transferred from Ukraine to Armenia which will assume the Chairmanship starting since 1 July 2013 for a period of six months until 30 June 2013.