Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr I. Khalilova / A Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Foreign Minister's Council meeting is expected to take place in Ankara, Turkey at the end of October due to end of Turkey's chairmanship in the organization, the Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister, Mahmud Mammadguliyev, reported on 25 September. Ukraine will take over chairmanship in BSEC for the next half a year.
"Half a year is not a period for a presiding country to make progress in the activities of the organization," the Deputy Minister said. Meanwhile, a remarkable event was the concluding of an Agreement on Cooperation among the BSEC members at the June summit dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the organization. The document envisages regional development, stimulation of projects and establishment of a favourable climate.
According to Mammadguliyev, in order to improve the efficiency of the organization the role of the BSEC Secretariat should be extended. That will enable the organization to be active regardless of the presiding country. For this purpose the secretariat should be staffed with professionally trained experts and the authorities of the Secretariat should be extended.
Development of BSEC may be enabled by the removal of obstacles and shortcomings in the Charter of BSEC' solving procedural processes which are impeding the development of the organization.
For the first time Azerbaijan suggested improving the BSEC Secretariat's role. Issues regarding the status of senior officials and many other matters should be transferred to the Secretariat for solving, not to be left for the consideration of Foreign Ministers. It is also necessary to restrict consensus' for sometimes that leads to delay (Electing of the BSEC Deputy Secretary General took two years due to several procedural matters).