On December 13, Athens was the venue of the 41^st Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). Attendees included heads and representatives of foreign ministries from Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as BSEC observers and sectoral dialogue partners. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin headed the Russian delegation.

Meeting participants reviewed a wide range of collaboration matters, including finance, transport, small and medium-sized businesses, culture, tourism, information and communications technology, trade facilitation initiatives, prospects for institutionalising relations between BSEC and the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as expanding BSEC’s cooperation with the European Union. They discussed the outcomes of the events held during Greece’s Presidency of the BSEC.

Russia and Greece launched an international project to establish an information centre of advanced practices in the field of sustainable development goals for the Black Sea region. The project is financed by a voluntary Russian contribution to the BSEC.

Under the rotation procedure, Romania will assume the Presidency of the BSEC from January 1 to June 30, 2020.