Yushchenko invites Baltic Black Sea Initiative to Energy Summit
During a September 29 meeting with the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, Ukraine President Victor Yushchenko invited the Baltic Black Sea Initiative to participate in the next Energy Summit originally scheduled to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2008, and which is now being hosted by Brussels at the request of Azerbaijan officials.
In May 2008, the last Energy Summit was held in Kyiv attended by Presidents of Azerbaijan, Poland, Georgia, Lithuania and Ukraine. The summit ended with a communique on cooperation in the sphere of energy. Participants of the summit decided to enhance cooperation through working on inter-governmental agreements. The Baltic Black Sea Initiative (BBSI) will complement government-level regional efforts, such as in energy cooperation.
The Baltic Black Sea Initiative is an alliance of the America-Georgia Business Council, the Belarusian-American Association, the Moldova Foundation, the U.S.-Baltic Foundation, U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, and the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation designed to address key issues that will assist the consolidation of democratic and free-market institutions and values in several countries in an increasingly important geopolitical region.
The initiative is designed to complement government-level regional efforts by these countries to achieve full Euro-Atlantic integration, such as the Community for Democratic Choice and GUAM, by drawing on the best practices and experience developed in the countries represented by the founding organizations. Discussions are underway to include Poland and Azerbaijan in the first phase of the Initiative’s activities. Other countries in the region will be welcomed as well.
This Initiative has been in development since 2006. Members of BBSI feel that the new realities of U.S., Canadian and European technical assistance process and recent developments in the Black Sea area, call for a regional effort in order to maximize successful delivery and impact.
The Initiative’s principal focus will be on developing results-oriented activities on a trans-national, regional basis in the following key areas: Energy, Economic Development, Conflict Resolution, Crisis Management, Leadership and Transport.
Currently, the Advisory Board of the Baltic-Black Sea Initiative is comprised of former U.S. ambassadors to the region: William Courtney - Former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, William Green Miller - Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Ints Silins - Former U.S. Ambassador to Latvia, Keith Smith - Former U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, John Todd Stewart - Former U.S. Ambassador to Moldova, and David Swartz - Former U.S. Ambassador to Belarus. Additional members are being invited.
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