News and press releases

VIENNA, 19 January 2017 – Following a period of relative calm in much of eastern Ukraine over the New Year and Christmas period, those who prefer to threaten and use force are once again undermining security for the inhabitants of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, said the OSCE Chairperson’s Special Representative Martin Sajdik and the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) Ertugrul Apakan to OSCE Permanent Council...

On 18 January 2017, the 73rd meeting under the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) took place in Ergneti, co-facilitated by Kęstutis Jankauskas, the Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) and Ambassador Guenther Baechler, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus...

KYIV, 17 January 2017- Members of the Youth Contact Group, established by the OSCE to promote inter-regional dialogue in Ukraine, today shared their visions of the future with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz during a walking tour of Kyiv today...

MINSK, 17 January 2017 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Martin Sajdik made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG and its working groups in Minsk on 16 January 2017:

VIENNA, 12 January 2017 – Austria’s OSCE Chairmanship 2017 aims to make determined use of the OSCE’s instruments to work for greater security and stability in Europe by creating more confidence through more co-operation, more predictability and more concrete approaches, said Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz today in his inaugural address to the Permanent Council as the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office...

VIENNA, 1 January 2017 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, highlighted three key challenges facing the Organization and its participating States as Austria took over as the 2017 OSCE Chairmanship: deplorable and complex crises and conflicts in the OSCE area, a fundamental lack of mutual trust and confidence, and an alarming phenomenon of growing radicalization and violent extremism, especially among young people: “We must vigorously engage and address this situation. The OSCE is the right platform to do so,” said Kurz.

VIENNA, 1 January 2017- OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sebastian Kurz and Secretary General Lamberto Zannier today strongly condemned the horrible attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve.