On 25 June 1992, heads of state or government from the six Black Sea coastal nations–Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine–as well as from five other countries situated in the general area of the historic Pontus Euxinus– Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece and the Republic of Moldova–assembled together in Istanbul, at the initiative of Turkey, to launch an ambitious programme of multilateral co-operation in the region. The immediate purpose of the meeting was economic. And this for good reason. Nine of the eleven countries represented at the Bosphorus gathering had just come out of a long period of totalitarianism and embarked on two highly complex, parallel and complementary, processes–fundamental restructuring and transition to market economy. The eleven participating states were brought together by the common realisation that extended multilateral co-operation among them is likely to contribute to speeding up those processes and fostering the economic and social progress of everyone of them. They have taken this road being perfectly aware of the great potential of the region for such co-operation. Large natural and human resources, a market of almost 350 million people, geographic proximity, complementarity of national economies, long traditions of communication and cultural interaction and the common desire to contribute to, and be part of, the integration processes going on in Europe, are but a few of the main pillars on which the BSEC is being developed.