OSCE Chairman appoints ex-Slovenian Prime Minister as Personal Representative for Central Asia

LJUBLJANA, 22 February 2005 - OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, has appointed Slovenia's first Prime Minister, Alojz Peterle, to be his Personal Representative for the OSCE States in Central Asia.

The new appointment is intended to provide added impetus to the OSCE's programmatic activities there and reflects the importance paid to relations among the Central Asian states by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the only comprehensive security body in which all five countries participate.

"We should deepen our efforts to assist the governments of this region, to which I paid my first visit last week," said the Chairman-in-Office. "I believe we can support them in furthering their democratization processes, particularly with regard to the preparation and holding of elections."

Like its predecessors, the new Slovenian Chairmanship attaches great importance to strengthening dialogue with this key region and Mr. Peterle replaces the former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari, who served from 2003 to 2004 in the same post.

Mr. Peterle has been asked by the Chairman-in-Office to assist him in maintaining contacts at the highest political levels in each of the countries concerned, with a view to identifying possible areas for strengthening co-operation within the framework of the OSCE's activities.

Appointed his country's first Prime Minister in 1990, since leaving that office in 1992 Mr Peterle served two periods as Foreign Minister. Currently a Member of the European Parliament, he holds the Vice-Presidency of the Union of European Federalists and is President of the Society for a United Europe, Slovenia.

Born in 1948, he was educated as an economist, geographer and historian. Russian is among the six languages he speaks.