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Ukraine unable to participate in Black Sea Economic Cooperation committee session

MOSCOW, March 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine has failed to send its representative to a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Committee for Legal and Political Issues.

The committee has started its work at Moscow’s President Hotel to focus on regional self-government cooperation, State Duma First Deputy Speaker Ivan Melnikov said on Wednesday.

“The internal situation does not allow our Ukrainian colleagues to leave Kiev,” he said.

“The BSEC is an organization that deals with economic cooperation and transport. Political issues are beyond its competence,” Melnikov said.

Commenting on the BSEC’s attitude towards Crimea’s accession to Russia, he said, “It is individual. There are different views inside delegations.”

“For example, the Armenian delegation positively reacts to Crimea’s accession to Russia as a constituent entity,” Melnikov said, adding that “a Bulgarian representative told me 63% of his country's citizens back Crimea’s reunification with Russia.”

The BSEC was created in 1993. The organization is a platform inter-parliamentary dialogues in the Black Sea. It includes 76 parliamentarians.

The BSEC’s priority is to render assistance to national parliaments in adopting laws related to projects within BSEC and creating a legal base to maintain multilateral economic, political and cultural cooperation. Russia, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Turkey are BSEC members.