Military and intelligence officials from the U.S. and a dozen other countries are discussing in Bucharest how to improve security in the Black Sea region.

George Maior, the head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, said that countries need to keep an eye on Black Sea security in the light of recent upheavals across the Arab world, AP reports

The Black Sea region straddles Europe, Asia and the former Soviet Union. A number of conflicts have been brewing in the region for decades.

The Romanian Intelligence Service and the Harvard University's Black Sea Security Program have organized the two-day event. Officials from the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Romania and Armenia are attending the conference.