Andorra’s Foreign Minister Maria Ubach Font and OSCE Secretary General Greminger meet in Vienna

Andorra’s priorities within international organizations, its foreign policy and engagement with the OSCE were the focus of a meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Andorra, Maria Ubach Font, and Secretary General Thomas Greminger on 29 October 2018 in Vienna.

“Multilateralism is essential for the visibility of ‘small countries’ and the OSCE’s understanding of and respect for their positions is commendable,” said Ubach Font. “We need to use instruments such as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to make the work of multilateral institutions more understandable to a broader audience.”

Ubach Font said that Andorra’s foreign policy priorities are: education for democratic citizenship, especially among youth; the fight against climate change (Andorra is party to the Paris Agreement and has already undertaken significant legislative reform in this area); and migration (following the principle of solidarity and responsibility Andorra has accepted a number of Syrian refugee families, some of them in co-operation with Sant’Egidio).

Ubach Font expressed support for the Secretary General’s OSCE reform agenda, striving to make the executive structures more responsive to the needs of OSCE participating States, to maximize collective their impact, and to ensure that the funds put at the their disposal are put to the best possible use.

“Andorra’s consistent support – both political support and through extra-budgetary contributions – is of great importance for the Organization. It is important we mobilize even more synergy among the OSCE executive structures, the Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE Institutions, in action-oriented dialogue on youth and security and migration,” said Greminger.