Meeting Foreign Minister of Tunisia, OSCE Secretary General confirms strong OSCE Mediterranean Partnership

The fruitful relationship the OSCE and Tunisia have developed in the context of the OSCE’s Mediterranean Partnership and the challenges Tunisia is facing in its current efforts to consolidate its democracy in an unsettled international environment were discussed during a meeting between OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier and Foreign Minister of Tunisia Khemaies Jhinaoui in Vienna on 17 May 2017. 

“The Tunisian project of democratization is unique in the region. We are demonstrating to the rest of the world that a Muslim country can be a democratic country and that therefore there is no antinomy between Islam and democracy,” Jhinaoui said.

“This is the task of the Tunisian people, but they need the understanding of their partners. They need political support – which already exists – but even more than that, they need sustained economic support. Tunisia is determined to succeed, and for that it needs the backing of its friends, of Europe and in particular of the OSCE, within its competencies,” he said.

“From election support to the fight against violent extremism, from youth empowerment to migration, there are many areas in which our existing co-operation can be further operationalized to meet the pressing challenges that Tunisia and OSCE countries face together in these trying times,” Zannier said.

“I take the opportunity to call on participating States to continue investing in the OSCE Mediterranean Partnership, including by considering easing the procedures that frame our co-operation, and to look at security interdependencies between the OSCE and the Mediterranean region as a whole, as the Helsinki Final Act invited us to do already over forty years ago,” he added.

Tunisia, together with Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Israel, has been an OSCE Mediterranean Partner for Co-operation since 1995. Jordan joined as a Partner in 1998.