Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the 45th Meeting of the Foreign Ministers’ Council of the Black Sea Cooperation Organisation, Moscow, December 21, 2022

Mr Chairman,

Mr Secretary General,

The Black Sea region has been a crossroads of nations, cultures, religions and civilisations for many centuries. It is here that the East meets the West and the North meets the South.

The establishment of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Organisation 30 years ago provided an institutional foundation for developing a common regional strategy of sustainable development. The Black Sea region’s role in the global economy will grow with the objective rise of a multipolar world. Positive trends have already become apparent. For example, trade between Russia and Türkiye has doubled to $45 billion over the first nine months of this year.

Russia has been working to strengthen the economic potential of the Black Sea region. Russia’s northern gas export routes have been cut short by the explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines, the circumstances of which the EU does not seem interested in investigating objectively. Under these circumstances, we are transporting gas to everyone who wants to buy it via the Black Sea pipelines. We are conducting talks with Ankara and our other international colleagues on the establishment of a gas distribution centre in Türkiye.

Seeking to overcome the food crisis created by the collective West’s unilateral sanctions, human-induced inflation and transport and logistics failures, we have been working with the UN to build up the volume of Russian agricultural exports to the countries that need them, which some Western countries have been stubbornly trying to prevent. Likewise, we hope that the implementation of the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative can be adjusted to take the interests of the poorest countries into account.

Over the past 30 years, the BSEC has won respect as a useful mechanism of regional cooperation. We believe that it is necessary to continue reinforcing its instruments and practical capabilities. We welcome the efforts to adjust the BSEC Economic Agenda. We regard transport, energy, trade, digital transformation, climate change response and stronger pandemic preparedness as promising spheres of cooperation.

The initiative to build a Ring Motorway around the Black Sea and to connect regional transport routes with the International North-South Transport Corridor will be capable of imparting a major boost to economic growth. The approval of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation’s (BSEC) strategy to facilitate trade and put in place a one-stop-shop mechanism within its framework is high on the list of our priorities.

We must develop cooperation between our organisation and other international entities in order to unlock the BSEC’s potential. We stand for harmonising integration processes throughout our common continent in order to form the Greater Eurasian Partnership, which will bring together multilateral economic formats. There is no place for discrimination here or for attempts to exclude anyone from mutually beneficial cooperation, which is what some are trying to do with regard to the EAEU. The efforts to establish contacts with the Eurasian Economic Union are being blocked under absolutely far-fetched pretexts. We see this as another example of the illegal actions that the West is taking in response to the disruption of its criminal plans to use the Kiev regime, which came to power as a result of the anti-constitutional coup, to put in jeopardy Russia’s legitimate security interests and deprive millions of Ukrainian citizens of their basic rights in violation of multiple international conventions.

We believe it is important to avoid the politicisation of the working processes at the BSEC and focus on the positive developments. We follow this approach in our efforts to increase the organisation’s economic success and to build up its resource base. As a reminder, Russia's voluntary contribution of $1 million made possible 13 technical assistance projects in the Black Sea region that are part of our varied economic agenda.

Colleagues,

The BSEC’s ability to facilitate the interests of its members directly depends on their commitment to the promotion of mutually beneficial cooperation. The organisation must not be used as a place for settling political scores. In this regard, we would like to note the positive role and professionalism of the BSEC Secretariat led by Lazar Comanescu.

In closing, I would like to wish every success to our friends from Serbia. I have no doubt whatsoever that, on January 1, 2023, they will take over the watch as BSEC chair with our all-out support.