The Informal Meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP), the Chairmanship-in-Office of which is being conducted by Bulgaria, will be held in Sofia and Plovdiv on 14th of September 2007.

The Turkish delegation will be headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs H. E. Mr. Ali Babacan.

Eleven countries (Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Moldavia and Montenegro) and UNMIK/Kosovo will participate in the Meeting.

In the first session of the Meeting which will take place during a journey from Sofia to Plovdiv by railroad, regional affairs will be discussed. In the second session of the Meeting which will be held in Plovdiv, the Host Country Agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina for the establishment of the Secretariat in Sarajevo of the Regional Cooperation Council, which was agreed to replace the Stability Pact with a more comprehensive and effective structuring, will be signed. As such, the SEECP will have been institutionally structured and the necessary environment will have been established for the strengthening of the relationship between the SEECP and the Regional Cooperation Council.

Turkey has played a prominent role in the establishment and progress of the SEECP. The Process is a significant cooperation forum which reflects the common will and the genuine voice of the region. By establishing finding solutions to problems through inter-regional political dialogue as its main objective, the Process has thus become more important under the current international environment and within the context of maintanance and consolidation of peace and stability in the Balkans.