OSCE Troika holds ministerial-level meeting in Vienna

VIENNA, 13 July 1995 - The current OSCE Troika - Italy, Hungary and Switzerland - held its second ministerial-level meeting today at OSCE headquarters in Vienna. The meeting was chaired by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Hungarian Foreign Minister László Kovács. Deputy Foreign Minister Walter Gardini represented Italy as preceding Chairman and State Secretary Jacob Kellenberger represented Switzerland as succeeding Chairman. OSCE Secretary General Wilhelm Höynck and OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Max van der Stoel were also present.

Taking into account the overall responsibility of the Chairman-in-Office for executive action of the OSCE and the assisting role of the Troika, the participants reviewed the increasingly broad spectrum of OSCE activities. Particular attention was given to the role of the OSCE Assistance Group in Chechnya. In this regard, the Troika commended the contribution of the OSCE, acting through the Assistance Group and the Chairman-in-Office, to facilitating a peaceful solution to the conflict in Chechnya. While recognising some improvement in the human rights situation in Chechnya, the Troika continues to be concerned about the significant violations of basic human rights there.

During the meeting, the Troika reviewed the progress of OSCE Minsk Group negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh as well as the status of preparations for an OSCE multinational peacekeeping force. The Troika also discussed the situation in areas where the OSCE is actively involved with its Missions.

The Troika touched upon the OSCE's current and future work on the "Common and Comprehensive Security Model for the 21st Century." At the December 1994 Budapest Summit, Heads of State or Government charged the OSCE to begin a discussion on a security model, and to submit a progress report to the 7-8 December meeting of OSCE foreign ministers (Ministerial Council) in Budapest. The available results of the discussion will be submitted to the next OSCE Summit in Lisbon in 1996.

The Chairman-in-Office and the Secretary General informed the participants about the important work of the Fourth Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Ottawa on 4-8 July.

The Troika intensively reviewed the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in other parts of the former Yugoslavia. They welcomed the statement issued the day before, in which the Chairman-in-Office firmly condemned the Bosnian-Serb take-over in Srebrenica. They assessed the OSCE's current efforts and discussed OSCE contributions to the settlement of the conflicts and to post-conflict rehabilitation.