Tadić attends BSEC summit in Istanbul

Tadić attends BSEC summit in Istanbul

He added that Serbia’s chairmanship over the BSEC that ended in April was very important in light of the decision to construct the Black Sea round highway, meant to enable better communication with European corridors and speed up political and economic integration of the region into the EU.

“Participation in the summit is very important to Serbia, given the economic potential of the region. Serbia should be a connection between the Black Sea region, the Mediterranean and Europe,” Tadić said.

He touched on the pressing issue of Kosovo, saying that “there were many ‘Kosovos’ in the Black sea region, as each country faced similar problems.”

“Serbia’s Kosovo is the first problem put before the UN Security Council,” Tadić said.

“From the perspective of the international law, independence for the province would set a precedent which would jeopardize stability of the entire Black Sea region and have far-reaching security and economic consequences,” Tadić argued.

Beside Tadić, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, Moldavian President Vladimir Voronin and the president of Ukraine Victor Yuschenko are also attending the summit.

The BSEC came into existence on June 25, 1992, aimed at promoting multilateral political and economic initiatives and fostering interaction, stability and prosperity in the Black Sea region.

Turkey, which has taken over the presidency of the organization from Serbia for a period of six months, starting May 1, 2007, has decided to give priority to several issues such as environment, transportation, energy, telecommunications and the fight against crime.