Serbia ambitious to develop the BSEC’s role in the region

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

'We want to cooperate and work together with EU or UN,’ says Deputy FM of Serbia Sladjana Prica. In this photo proided by BSEC

Serbia vowed to develop inter-regional economic cooperation within the Black Sea region and develop the role of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) bodies as it took over the BSEC chairmanship.

“Many leaders in this region are so euro-centrically oppressed; they don’t see the importance of this region. We have to be aware and proud of being the connection between east and west, north and south. We want to cooperate and work together with the other bodies such as EU or U.N. without confronting them,” Deputy Foreign Minister of Serbia Sladjana Prica told the Hürriyet Daily News. Prica said BSEC can also be useful for the forthcoming governments of Arab Spring countries concerning their economic developments. “I hope BSEC will find a way to find this difficult role, because Arab Spring will not be successful without economic development,” Prica said, adding that in this regard they will organize two ministerial level meetings on energy and environment during their chairmanship.

“Across this region if you see the map of pipelines you will see the importance of energy not only for this region, but also for the rest of the world. We’d like to improve the cooperation in energy in the region,” Prica said. Prica said they were working to finalize and begin the implementation of the Black Sea motor highway soon and they will develop other concrete projects in the Black Sea region. “We would like to especially work with Russia and Turkey in order to achieve our goals,” Prica said.