Ministers of OSCE Troika and Serbia met in New York to discuss key issues ahead of Kyiv Ministerial Council

On 26 September 2013 the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara, Vice-President and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, Tánaiste  and Irish Foreign and Trade Minister Eamon Gilmore and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic met in New York as the OSCE Troika plus Serbia. They discussed the recent developments in the OSCE area ahead of the OSCE Ministerial Council scheduled for 5-6 December 2013 in Kyiv.

The meeting agenda encompassed issues pertaining to politico-military, economic and environmental and human dimensions of the OSCE. The Ministers expressed their hope that the ongoing discussions at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw would contribute to building consensus around decisions at the Kyiv Ministerial Council.

The Ministers positively assessed the framework for decisions proposed by the Ukrainian Chairmanship for the Kyiv Ministerial Council. They also reaffirmed their intention to further pursue the Helsinki +40 process leading up to 2015 and agreed on the need to keep protracted conflicts’ resolution on top of the OSCE agenda.

Ministers Kozhara, Burkhalter, Gilmore and Mrkic visited New York to participate in  the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly.