OSCE Chairman: Conflicts Among Top Priorities in 2006

Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council on January 12 the new OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, said solving conflicts in former Soviet states and tackling organized crime will be among the main priorities of the organization in the year ahead.

Minister De Gucht said he hopes 2006 will be a year of “new opportunities” in the process of resolution of the so-called “frozen conflicts.”

He noted “positive developments” on the question of South Ossetia in Georgia and said that he hopes these would serve as examples of progress for other regions, including Moldova and the issue of Transdniestria.

He announced a visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan on January 24 so that the Chairmanship could contribute to the successful outcome of the future of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Belgian Foreign Minister said that the key concern for the OSCE remained the security and stability in the whole of Europe, because there can be no effective and lasting democratic rule without stability.

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