OSCE Chairmanship sees further progress in Geneva discussions

GENEVA, 1 July 2009 - The Greek OSCE Chairmanship said it welcomed the progress made at the sixth round of Geneva Discussions that ended today.

"It was agreed that a first meeting of one of the joint incident prevention and response mechanisms would take place in Gali on 14 July," said Ambassador Charalampos Christopoulos, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. "It was also agreed that a third meeting of the other mechanism should take place as soon as possible. These mechanisms are vital for fostering security in a practical way."

He and the other two co-chairs - Ambassador Johan Verbeke of the UN and Ambassador Pierre Morel of the EU - agreed with the participants that the next meeting would be in Geneva on 17 September.

The discussions again took place in two parallel working groups; one looking at security and stability in the region and the other at humanitarian questions including internally displaced persons and refugees.

Christopoulos said he had reported back to participants on OSCE efforts to put together a joint needs assessment team to look at repair requirements to guarantee water supplies. He also briefed participants on OSCE efforts in the field of missing persons and detainees.

He noted that foreign ministers of the 56 OSCE participating States had met on the Greek island of Corfu last weekend and launched the Corfu Process to tackle new and existing security challenges. The ministers suggested a number of priority areas, and one of them was the urgent need to address the peaceful and negotiated solution of regional conflicts, he said.