40th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States, Sofia, 28 June 2019
The PABSEC Delegation composed of Mr. Petar Kanev, Head of the PABSEC Bulgarian Delegation and Mr. Asaf Hajiyev, PABSEC Secretary General, participated in Sofia, on 28 June 2019, in the 40th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States. This meeting was preceded by the Meeting of the BSEC Committee of Senior Officials, which considered and adopted the documents for the ministerial meeting.
Mrs. Ekaterina Zaharieva, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria, Chairman-in-Office of the BSEC, and Ambassador Michael Christides, Secretary General of the BSEC PERMIS, addressed the gathering at the Opening Ceremony.
During the meeting, the participants exchanged views on different aspects concerning the Organization and the cooperation in the BSEC Region. The Council took note of the Reports of the Meetings of the BSEC Committee of Senior Officials, discussed and adopted the draft Resolutions, Decisions and Recommendations, which were submitted to them by the Committee of Senior Officials.
The recommendation of the Committee of Senior Officials to invite the Republic of North Macedonia to accede the charter of the BSEC was supported and adopted by the BSEC Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
In his speech, the PABSEC Secretary General informed the participants about the results of the Fifty-Third PABSEC General Assembly, which was held in Baku, during 19-21 June 2019 and about the activities of the PABSEC Committees, during the second half of 2019. He also informed about some significant events that were organised during the PABSEC Azerbaijani Presidency in the first part of 2019.
At the conclusion of the meeting, a ceremony took place, whereby the Republic of Bulgaria handed over the Chairmanship-in-Office of the BSEC, to the Hellenic Republic, the term of which starts on 1 July 2019 (1 July - 31 December 2019).