General Secretary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PACES) Asap Gadzhiev noted the significance of the Black Sea region for world policy in currently current realities.
“The Black Sea region is a bridge and a point of intersection between Asia and Europe, mainly in terms of concentrating the main transport routes. This is like a great silk path that connected the East and West,” Gadzhiev said on the opening of a summit on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the PacES .
Secretary General noted that the region is also very rich in terms of energy. In the Caspian Sea there is natural gas, oil and energy resources that find access to world and European markets.
According to the Secretary General, large-scale projects have been implemented in 30 years, mainly in the field of energy, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Jahan oil pipeline (BTD), the Turkish stream gas pipeline, transanatoly and transadriatic gas pipelines.
The PACCES Secretary General drew attention to the fact that today the region began to gain popularity for the whole world.
A large number of conflicts occurred in the region, it is important not only from the point of view of energy resources or geographical position, but also in terms of human resources. The main value of the region is the people who live here, emphasized the Secretary General PacES.
Gadzhiev thanked the speaker of the Turkish parliament Mustaf Schentop for the General Assembly and the summit, noting that this is the second event that is held in full-time format after Covid-19 pandemia.
Gadzhiev recalled that 9 years ago the speakers of parliaments of 9 Black Sea countries signed a declaration in Istanbul. “This has become the birthday of the PacES. Since then we have traveled a long way, and now the PacES is an known parliamentary assembly,” the Secretary General said.
According to him, the PacES has received the status of the “observer” in many parliamentary assemblies, including the OSCE parliamentary Assembly (OSCE), the Asian parliamentary Assembly, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.