OSCE Chairman, Russian Foreign Minister discuss Organization's effectiveness and role in settling conflicts

MOSCOW, 30 August 2007 - Spain is working hard to strengthen the OSCE during its Chairmanship of the Organization this year and the Russian Federation, as a key participating State, plays an important role in this respect, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, said today.

Minister Moratinos, speaking during a bilateral visit to Moscow that included discussions on the OSCE, also said he had thanked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for addressing a special OSCE meeting in May in Vienna.

He said he had discussed a range of OSCE-related topics with Minister Lavrov, including the so-called protracted conflicts, the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, the Organization's election monitoring activities, anti-terrorism, Kosovo and preparations for the Madrid Ministerial Council that will bring together the foreign ministers of the 56 participating States in November.

"Spain is working hard to streamline this year's Ministerial Council as part of its efforts to strengthen the Organization and ensure a workable number of decisions can be agreed. Russia can play a positive role in this regard," the Minister said.

"Spain and other countries have also been working to balance the activities in the OSCE's three dimensions of security, reinforcing economic and environmental as well as politico-military matters, without prejudicing the human dimension and the standards reached in the protection of human rights," he said.

"A good example of this was when Russia and the United States jointly initiated a special OSCE conference on the private-public partnership in fighting terrorism in May in Vienna."

The Chairman-in-Office said he had discussed the August 6 missile incident in Georgia and outlined the contents of the report of his special envoy, former Croatian foreign minister Miomir Zuzul, on meetings last week in Moscow and Tbilisi. Minister Moratinos said he, too, would travel to Georgia next week for a pre-arranged visit.

On election monitoring, Minister Moratinos said the OSCE stood ready, as soon as an invitation is received, to observe Russia's parliamentary and presidential elections to the same high standard seen in all its election observation missions across the OSCE region.