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Diplomat: Russia-Turkey relations won't be discussed within Black Sea Economic Cooperation

The Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization should contribute to development of economic cooperation among the region’s countries
A police officer outside the embassy of Turkey in Moscow Alexandr Sherbak/TASS
A police officer outside the embassy of Turkey in Moscow
© Alexandr Sherbak/TASS

ISTANBUL, January 22 /TASS/. Russia is not planning to use the floor of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC) to discuss bilateral issues with Turkey, Yevgeny Stanislavov, director of the economic cooperation department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told TASS on Friday.

"Of course, we think that the organization should tackle the tasks set forth in its Charter, which says that it should contribute to development of economic cooperation among the region’s countries," Stanislavov said.

"That is why we believe that our approach to building this multilateral cooperation should be pragmatic and exclusively non-politicized. In short, this /our relations with Turkey/ should have no impact on our BSEC interaction," the diplomat stressed.

"We have no intention to use this [BSEC] floor for discussing bilateral problems with Turkey during our presidency. We hope that the Turkish side will take the same approach to work in this organization," Stanislavov said.

On Friday, Stanislavov presented a program of Russia presidency at the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization at the BSEC headquarters. He told journalists that Ukraine was hopelessly politicizing the Crimea theme within BSEC.

"Crimea and Sevastopol remained parts of the Black Sea region after their reunification with Russia. That is why BSEC cooperation should embrace these Russian regions like Sochi, for example," Stanislavov said.

"In our case, we have to deal with an extremely politicized and emotional stance of our Ukrainian colleagues who keep saying that they do not recognize the realities existing in the Black Sea region and actively impel other countries to support this futile stance literally at every gathering," the Russian diplomat said.