Türkiye hands over regional economic bloc's chairmanship to Albania

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Albania took over the six-month rotating presidency of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) from Türkiye, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan attended the online Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) ... from Oslo and handed our BSEC Chairmanship to Albania," the ministry said on X.

During the presidency of Türkiye, "significant progress" was made in updating the BSEC Economic Agenda document, making the Project Development Fund operational, and revitalizing the BSEC Business Council, the ministry added.

Headquartered in Istanbul, the BSEC was established in 1992 with the aim of acting in a spirit of friendship and good neighborliness and enhancing mutual respect and confidence, dialogue and cooperation among member states.

The group has 13 members: Türkiye, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine.