OSCE Chairperson participates in Paris meeting on crisis in Ukraine to discuss possibility of an international contact group

PARIS, 5 March 2014 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister, Didier Burkhalter, took part in a meeting on the Ukrainian crisis in Paris today. On the invitation of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, key actors focused in their discussions on the possibility of the creation of a contact group for Ukraine.

The meeting took place at ministerial level and at the margin of a support conference for Lebanon, organized by France. The Swiss Chair used the opportunity to advocate the establishment of an international contact group on Ukraine, whose main task would be to support Ukraine in this period of transition. The group would act as a platform for co-ordination and exchange of information on international assistance and project-related activities. Burkhalter encouraged participants to take decisive steps towards de-escalation and a settlement of the crisis.

The high-level participants of the meeting from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, the Russian Federation,  the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, the OSCE and the UN also discussed the possibility of an OSCE monitoring mission.

While discussions on a contact group are ongoing, the Personal Envoy of the CiO, Tim Guldimann, is visiting Ukraine and arrived in Crimea for consultations yesterday, at the same time as the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Astrid Thors.

In parallel, up to now, 18 participating States decided in the framework of the Vienna Document 2011 to follow a request of the Ukrainian authorities for sending unarmed military representatives from 5-12 March to Ukraine to observe military activities and assess the situation on the ground.

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights announced on 3 March that it would send an election observation mission to Ukraine for the presidential election of 25 May. The announcement came after ODIHR received from the Ukrainian authorities an invitation to observe.