Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

e better addressed through an enhanced regional format of dialogue and cooperation.
Azerbaijan was better positioned to advocate itself as one of the most important gas and
oil supplier, gaining thus important leverage. On the western shore, Moldova joined the
BSEC essentially through the same reasoning; first, because it expected to enhance its
international recognition as a newly independent state (NIS), liberated from the ‘tyranny
of the USSR’; and second, because it was looking for alternatives for its high energy
and export dependency on the Russian market. Moldova expected that the BSEC would
open new markets and trade routes, while providing an opportunity for Moldova to
express its acute security concerns (vis-à-vis Transnistria) through a regional format of
cooperation and democratic solidarity.
The creation of the BSEC was expected to increase trade in goods and services, to
facilitate the positive interaction of the coastal and riparian states through enhanced
cooperation, without aiming however to satisfy or solve individual demands and grievances
that existed between states in the region. 7 Many countries of the region were satisfied
with balancing their interests through the BSEC against portrayed or existing external
influences, rather than essentially resolving their security concerns.
Nevertheless, the creation of the BSEC defined the main parameters of a long-expected
and much needed collective project, which makes it today the most advanced institutional
platform for regional cooperation in the Black Sea region. With the ratification of its
statutory Charter, in 1999, the BSEC aimed to advance its institutional profile towards
a full-fledged regional economic organisation, operating through a Permanent Secretariat,
and a multitude of specialised working groups, ad hoc groups of experts and partners
in the countries concerned.
The Organisation is a visible entity today that enshrines a wide and multifaceted framework
of cooperation across the region and beyond. It remains dedicated to building up peace,
stability and good neighbourly relations. The diversity of the BSEC membership in terms
of international affiliation adds to the complexity of the BSEC’s functioning, but the
regional need for intensified regional cooperation, political and security partnerships is
today becoming stronger than ever. After 11 September 2001, the United States (US)
and the EU showed increased attention to the Black Sea as a region.
The completion of the latest wave of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation enlargement in
2002 and 2004, new security threats and the effects of the ‘Rose’ and ‘Orange’ revolutions
combined, have catalysed a new sort of debate over the geopolitical and practical
7 Celac, Sergiu (2006), ‘The Regional Ownership Conundrum: The case of the Organisation of the BSEC’, in
Asmus, Ronald D. et.al. (eds.) Next Steps in forging a strategy for the Wider Black Sea, German Marshall Fund,
Washington, pp. 215-220.
88 UNFOLDING THE BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION VIEWS FROM THE REGION