OSCE Chairperson announces agreement on summit, calls Kyrgyzstan crisis a 'vitality test' for Organization

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 17 July 2010 - OSCE Foreign Ministers meeting in Almaty today reached consensus on holding a summit in Astana this year and reinforcing OSCE assistance to Kyrgyzstan, said the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev.

Formal decisions by the OSCE Permanent Council will need to follow the foreign ministers' agreement.

"Today we decided that before the end of this year we shall hold a meeting of heads of state and government in Astana," he told reporters at the news conference concluding the informal meeting of OSCE Foreign Ministers.

"The forthcoming summit of OSCE leaders will be held after 11 years and will become a new and very important milestone in the life of our organization. We are convinced it will give an important impetus for strengthening security and developing co-operation."

According to Saudabayev, a key topic for the summit will be the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian community - "shaping a united and indivisible security space, free of dividing lines and different levels of security."

Other topics include reconfirming States' commitments; reinforcing the OSCE's institutional foundation and its transformation into a full-fledged international organization; strengthening arms control; enhancing the OSCE toolbox in all three dimensions on early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation; joint development of ways to peacefully settle protracted conflicts; and increased attention to countering trans-national threats.

He also said that boosting OSCE engagement, within its mandate, in international efforts to stabilize and reconstruct Afghanistan, countering economic challenges in the post-crisis period, strengthening the OSCE's potential to counteract challenges in the human dimension and enhancing OSCE institutions' ability to monitor implementation would also be discussed.

In his statement to the Ministers of the 56 OSCE participating States, Saudabayev said that the Organization's ability "to effectively react and resolve existing and new challenges, including the need to stabilize the situation in Kyrgyzstan, will be a test of the OSCE's vitality."

"The OSCE is to play a key role in rendering assistance to Kyrgyzstan, including through the enhancement of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and the proposed Police Advisory Group, an initiative which was supported by the participating States," he said. "In addition, assistance from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights should be given for the upcoming parliamentary elections."