National news agencies agree to closer cooperation at 'New Silk Road Forum'
The participants of the forum agreed on Sunday to strengthen their cooperation to improve communication and cultural ties
The "Thessaloniki Declaratio" whose signing concluded the forum, adopts nine common targets that will allow them to play "a leading role in improving communication, with a view to strengthening trade and cultural ties and building closer cooperation."
Among the objectives set out is to strengthen cooperation in the fields of news exchange, news coverage, new media, social media, web-based information, news sites, staff exchanges, support for other correspondents' news agencies, taking into account the potential of each agency.
For the implementation and coordination of the joint actions, the participants in the forum intend to set up a secretariat, which will be based in Thessaloniki.
ANA's President and General Director Michalis Psilos said participation in the secretariat will be on a voluntary basis and open to anyone who is interested. On the sidelines of the forum, ANA signed two new cooperation agreements with Turkey and Armenia's international news agencies.
Participants in the forum included the Chinese news agency Xinhua, the Balkan news agencies (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey) that are members of the Association of Balkan News Agencies - Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE), the news agencies of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Russia (both TASS and Ria-Novosti), Slovakia and Czech Republic, as well as a host of journalists from China, Turkey and Greece