News and press releases

BASEL, 4 December 2014 – The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is facing its greatest challenge in recent memory as it responds to the Ukraine crisis and must take decisive steps, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) said in an address to the Organization’s foreign ministers today...

BASEL, Switzerland, 4 December 2014 – Today, after 18 years, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia are taking over full responsibility for regional stability and arms control, essential for building peace and stability in the Western Balkans, with senior politicians from the four countries signing a document on the 21st OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel...

BASEL, Switzerland, 4 December 2014 – It is essential to preserve the OSCE as a platform for inclusive discussions and as an effective responder despite divisions in Europe over the situation in Ukraine, said the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter in his opening address at the 21st OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel...

BASEL, Switzerland, 4 December 2014- We, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry, State Secretary for European Affairs of France Harlem Desir – remain strongly committed to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. There is no military solution, and we call on the sides to refrain from violence and work actively towards a lasting settlement...

The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum and the work of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC). In particular, it noted attempts in Donetsk to implement a ceasefire and arrange for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry. An SMM Unarmed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was shot at in the Donetsk region.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, 3 December 2014- Representatives of law enforcement agencies from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are meeting on 4 and 5 December in Almaty to discuss issues of co-operation in fighting drugs and the exchange of information on drug traffickers and drug supply routes...

Basel, 03 December 2014 – In his capacity as Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE, Didier Burkhalter attended the closing session of the Parallel Civil Society Conference, held in the margins of the Ministerial Council meeting on 02 and 03 December. In Basel, more than 100 civil society representatives discussed and adopted concrete recommendations directed at the OSCE, its Institutions, field presence and participating States. In addition to the CiO, the closing session of the conference was attended by Ambassador Dejan Šahović, Head of the Serbian Chairmanship Task Force, and Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).