OSCE's new Chairman-in-Office to visit Ukraine

VIENNA, 4 January 2005 - The OSCE's new Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, is to make his first foreign visit in this capacity to Ukraine on 4 and 5 January.

The Chairman-in-Office is scheduled to arrive in Kyiv late on Tuesday and to meet outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, Parliamentary Speaker Vladimir Litvin, and Foreign Minister Constantin Grischenko.

He will also meet the two candidates in the recent presidential elections, Victor Yushchenko and Victor Yanukovych, as well as the Head of the OSCE Long-term Election Observation Mission to Ukraine, Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens.

The focus of the Chairman-in-Office's talks will be the development of the situation in Ukraine after the presidential elections, as well as other issues on the OSCE agenda, with particular emphasis on the Organization's activities in Ukraine.

The OSCE has a continuing field operation in the country in the form of the Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, established by the Permanent Council (Decision No.295, 1 June 1999) for the purpose of carrying out tasks related to the new form of co-operation between Ukraine and the OSCE.

This co-operation consists of planning, implementing and monitoring projects between the relevant Ukrainian authorities and the OSCE and its Institutions. Such projects cover all aspects of OSCE activities and involve governmental as well as non-governmental bodies.

The Co-ordinator's office is the second OSCE field operation to have been established in Ukraine. It was preceded by the OSCE Mission to Ukraine, which began its work on 24 November 1994 and was deemed to have successfully completed its mandate in 1999.