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Diplomat Lazar Comanescu, new Secretary General of Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization
The Romanian diplomat Lazar Comanescu received the position of Secretary General of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu said, adding that this nomination represents "a success for the Romanian diplomacy".
"I welcome with satisfaction today the position received by Romania, of Secretary General of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, in the person of Ambassador Lazar Comanescu, whom I congratulate! A success for Romanian diplomacy and proof of the continuous commitment of Romania for the Black Sea cooperation," Aurescu wrote on Facebook.
Lazar Comanescu has been a two-term minister of Foreign Affairs, during the period of April - December 2008 and since November, 2015, until January 2017. He was Romania's ambassador to Germany, during the period of 2009-2015 and head of the Romania's Permanent Representation to the EU, from 2001 until 2008.
BSEC was founded in 1992, in the then conditions in the Black Sea area. Thus, on June 25, 1992, in Istanbul, eleven heads of state and government (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine) signed the "Summit declaration regarding Black Sea Economic Cooperation" and the "Bosphorus Declaration".
In June, 1998, in Yalta, the "BSEC Charter" was signed, which came into force on the 1st of May 1999 and became the fundamental document of the Organization. Once with adhesion of the Republic of North Macedonia, in November 2020, the number of BSEC members has gone up to thirteen.
BSEC, through its broad spectrum of activities, as well as through its contents, is a useful framework for dialogue and stimulation of mutual trust among member states, thus preparing the field for a possible viable commitment in much more ambitious projects. In this sense, the annual BSEC summit in Istanbul (May 22, 2017) reconfirmed the shared commitment for promoting a pragmatic, project-oriented cooperation, for the joint benefit.