The leaders of a dozen nations in the Black Sea region, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, met in Istanbul under tight security on Monday for a summit on trade, transport and energy cooperation.
The gathering of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) opened with warnings that political tensions and unresolved conflicts between member states were hindering economic exchange in the oil-rich region.
"Political conflicts constitute an important hurdle in the way of economic cooperation and development," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a lunch he hosted at the summit. "We have to make efforts to find a solution to political problems by ourselves within the region," he added.
The BSEC, which was founded 15 years ago, comprises the Black Sea littoral states - Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine - as well as Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Moldova and Serbia.
Turkish police stepped up security measures ahead of the summit, and five people suspected of having links with the al Qaeda network were arrested in Istanbul on Sunday. Prior to the meeting of heads of state and governments, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul held a rare bilateral meeting with Vardan Oskanian, his counterpart from Armenia, with which Turkey has no diplomatic ties.
Armenia was the only country to be represented by a foreign minister. All other nations sent presidents or prime ministers. Oskanian urged Turkey to open the border between the two arch-rivals, saying that such a move would help build confidence.
"If you are serious about dialogue, please open the border first," Oskanian said. Turkey dealt a heavy economic blow to impoverished Armenia in 1993 as it shut the border between the two countries in a show of solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with Armenia over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ankara refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan because of Armenia's campaign to have the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century recognised as genocide.
One major objective on the BSEC agenda is upgrading transport infrastructure, including a projected 7,500-kilometre (4,660-mile) ring road along the Black Sea coast and regular maritime links between member states.
Removing legal barriers to trade is another priority, with a special meeting on the issue scheduled for September. The group is also seeking closer cooperation with the European Union, with the vice president of the European Commission, Guenter Verheugen, attending the summit in Istanbul.
The BSEC covers nearly 20 million square kilometres (7.7 million square miles) with a population of 350 million. Its member states have a total foreign trade capacity of 300 billion dollars (223.5 billion euros) a year. The region is the world's second-largest source of oil and natural gas, after the Gulf.