OSCE Chairman-in-Office will travel to Central Asia to keep up dialogue with participating States

THE HAGUE, 30 June 2003 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office (CiO), Netherlands Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, plans to pay a week-long visit to Central Asia, taking in four of the five OSCE participating States in the region.

He will visit Kazakhstan (6 to 7 July), Uzbekistan (8 July), Kyrgyzstan (9 July) and Tajikistan (11 July).

During its year of office, the Netherlands Chairmanship has placed special emphasis on Central Asia. It believes that the OSCE, the only European security structure in which the Central Asian countries participate, can play an important role in the political and economic transition process they are going through.

This visit of the OSCE CiO is intended to keep the dialogue with these countries going. Issues such as democracy and good governance, but also economic co-operation and politico-military security-related matters form part of the dialogue. In addition, Foreign Minister de Hoop Scheffer will use this opportunity to discuss other priorities of the Netherlands Chairmanship such as countering terrorism and various forms of trafficking including in drugs.

Through his visits to the OSCE centres in the region, the CiO also aims to get a better idea of the contribution of the OSCE on all the above issues.

In all the countries that he will be visiting, the Netherlands CiO will not only have meetings with the authorities, but also with representatives of civil society, human rights and other non-governmental organizations and political parties.

To underline the importance that the Netherlands attaches to close co-operation with the Central Asian region, earlier this year the CiO appointed the former Finnish President, Mr. Marrti Ahtisaari, as his personal envoy for Central Asia. Mr. Ahtisaari has already made two trips to the region.

In Kyrgyzstan on 9 July, Mr. de Hoop Scheffer will also, in his capacity as Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, pay a visit to the military airbase of Manas, where Dutch F16 fighter planes and their crews are stationed.

The Dutch Foreign Minister is also planning a visit to Afghanistan, where he will be visiting the Dutch troops in Kabul on 10 July.