News and press releases

TIRANA/VIENNA, 23 March 2020- OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Prime Minister and Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania, Edi Rama, and OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger expressed their deep concern that in recent days, the armed formations have prevented the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) from crossing the contact line into non-government-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine. They called for urgent steps to ensure the safety of SMM staff and that the SMM is able to continue to operate, while taking into account the need to control the spread of COVID-19...

The OSCE, together with other international organizations, continues to undertake preventative measures against the COVID-19 outbreak, in line with guidance from the authorities of host countries...

At the invitation of the Standing Committee on Defence and Security of the Armenian National Assembly, some 50 representatives from oversight and government bodies, security sector institutions and civil society organizations gathered in Yerevan on 27 February 2020 to inaugurate the new national multi-stakeholder platform on democratic security sector oversight...

VIENNA, 27 February 2020 – Enhancing co-operation between the OSCE’s Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) and the Permanent Council (PC) in preventing and countering terrorism was the focus of a joint meeting of the FSC and PC held on 26 February in Vienna under Turkey’s FSC Chairmanship and Albania’s OSCE Chairmanship. The discussions focused on how the FSC, as the OSCE’s leading decision-making body in the politico-military sphere, can contribute, in line with its mandate and existing instruments, to the OSCE’s comprehensive approach to combating terrorism...

TIRANA / VIENNA, 18 February 2020- OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Prime Minister and Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania, Edi Rama, and OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger expressed their deep concern about reports of heavy fighting near the Zolote disengagement area in eastern Ukraine today. They regretted in particular the reports of casualties. While noting that the fighting there was reported to have stopped, they called for restraint and full respect for the ceasefire, especially after the many recommitments and reaffirmations most recently in the conclusions of the Normandy-format Summit in Paris on 9 December.

MUNICH, Germany, 15 February 2020 – Co-operation between the OSCE and Armenia was a focus of a meeting yesterday between OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger and Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on the margins of the Munich Security Conference...

VIENNA, 29 January 2020- The 20th Anniversary of the 1999 OSCE Istanbul Summit was marked at today’s meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) in Vienna, held under Turkey’s FSC Chairmanship. Speakers described the Summit as a “bridge-builder to the 21st century”, which could inspire OSCE participating States to step up a co-operative and constructive approach to addressing security challenges by reminding them of past common efforts to ensure peace, stability and security...