International Conference "Between the Caspian and Black Seas: New Challenges and Opportunities for the South Caucasus," organized by the Center for Strategic Analysis "SPECTRUM" (sponsored by NATO's Public Diplomacy Division and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland) took place on October 20-21, 2005, in Yerevan
Along the NATO and European Union enlargement, the South Caucasus is becoming a focus of increased interests of the European structures, trying to work out some mechanisms aimed at reducing the current tension within this region, including via creation of frameworks for cooperation not only among the three regional states - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, but also among their immediate neighbors. In this context, a substantial role belongs to the EU program "The Wider Europe: New Neighborhood," as well as to many other more compact regional projects.
One of them is the "Wider Black Sea" project, within which they are trying to unite the Black Sea states in some common system to set up new frameworks of cooperation in such fields as security, democratization and economy.
On one hand, for the successful realization of that program such factors as Turkey's, Bulgaria's and Rumania's membership in NATO, their potential membership in the European Union, participation of the three South Caucasian states in the Partnership for Peace program and their intensifying relations with NATO, initiation of "The Wider Europe: New Neighborhood" project, as well as the special relations of Russia and Ukraine with NATO and EU, are very important.
On the other hand, the South Caucasus at the same time lies in the Caspian Sea zone, which is also in the focus of the strategic interests of all above-mentioned players, and one of the main reasons of their attention is the significant oil and gas reserves. The relative closeness of the region to Europe allows treating the Caspian states as a perspective suppliers of energy resources for the states, situated on the Western Shore of the Black Sea.
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