ANKARA - Members of Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group (BLACKSEAFOR) that envisages cooperation among Black Sea littoral states had a meeting in technical level in Ankara on Monday.
The meeting was chaired by Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Nabi Sensoy. Officials from Foreign Ministry, and representatives of General Staff and Naval Forces Command also attended the meeting.
Foreign Ministry issued a statement and said it was the first political consultation meeting under BLACKSEAFOR agreement, stating that they aimed to review the experiences and exchange views about future.
Founding Agreement of BLACKSEAFOR had taken effect on November 2, 2003 after being approved by all the member countries.
Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Russian Federation and Ukraine signed an agreement on April 2, 2001 aiming to have cooperation among naval forces of Black Sea littoral states.
Cooperation mechanisms envisaged by the Agreement are: search and rescue operations in sea, humanitarian aid, environment protection movements, mine sweeping activities, good will visits and other assignments that would be decided by member countries.
(AY) 19.01.2004