On 14 December 2018, upon the official invitation of the MFA of Azerbaijan and H.E. Mr. Michael B. Christides, Secretary General of the BSEC, TRACECA joined the Meeting of Council of the Foreign Ministers of BSEC in Baku

The Meeting was organized under the presidency of Azerbaijan and brought together delegations led by high-ranking officials from the member countries. In particular, the meeting was attended by the Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC member-states: H.E. Mr. Elmar Mammadyarov, Minister of FA of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr. Tudor Ulianovschii, Minister of FA of Moldova, H.E. Mr. Sergei Lavrov, Minister of FA of Russia, H.E. Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of FA of Turkey, H.E. Mr. Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev, Deputy Minister of FA of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mrs. Emilia Kraleva, Deputy Minister of FA of Bulgaria, H.E. Mr. Alexander Khvitisiashvili, Deputy Minister of FA of Georgia, H.E. Mr. Markos Bolaris, Vice minister of FA of Greece, H.E. Mr. Vasil Bodnar, Deputy Minister of FA of Ukraine. 

Ambassadors, representatives of the related bodies, observers, sectoral dialogue partners and guests were also among the distinguished invitees.

Development of transport hubs in the BSEC region, improvement of regional sectoral cooperation in economic areas, collaboration in transport-transit field and communications in the region were among the key priorities of the Agenda of the Meeting.

Within the Meeting, Mr. Ciopraga, TRACECA Secretary General had an exchange of opinions with H.E. Mr. Christides and the distinguished representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the opportunity of further development in the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia region.

It should be noted that the PS IGC TRACECA and the PS BSEC (PERMIS – Permanent International Secretariat of BSEC) built up their mutual cooperation based on the Memorandum of Understanding, signed on 13 December 2007 in Astana, the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, which was founded in 1992, is an intergovernmental organization uniting 12 states of the Black Sea and Southern Balkans. The headquarters of the organization is located in Istanbul. Azerbaijan assumed the BSEC chairmanship at the 38th meeting of the Organization's Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which took place on June 27. Azerbaijan's presidency under the motto 'Boosting Trade through Connectivity'in the BSEC organization will be followed by Bulgaria.