Chairmanship, Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine focus of OSCE Magazine
VIENNA, 26 March 2010 - The latest OSCE Magazine, now available in print and online, highlights the priorities of the 2010 Kazakh OSCE Chairmanship, its first activities and preparations towards the goal of holding a summit later this year.
"As a country straddling East and West and the first Central Asian participating State to assume the Chairmanship of the OSCE, Kazakhstan has a unique opportunity to bridge divides and affirm the cohesiveness of this prestigious Organization," writes Ambassador Kairat Abdrakhmanov in the introduction.
His predecessor as Chairperson of the Permanent Council, Greek Ambassador Mara Marinaki, retraces the journey of the year 2009, which saw the launching of the Corfu Process, the Organization's discussions on fundamental questions of European security, and highlights the significance of decisions taken at the Athens Ministerial Council in December.
An interview with the Chairperson-in-Office's Personal Representative on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a first-person piece by Field Assistant Peter Keay describe the OSCE's work on the ground to build confidence and facilitate dialogue on finding a peaceful settlement of this longstanding conflict that continues to cost lives every year.
This issue of the OSCE Magazine showcases the OSCE's work in Ukraine, with articles on the largest-ever OSCE project to eliminate the toxic rocket fuel mélange; a project to remove explosive remnants of war from Crimea, and the observation of the recent presidential election. Another article features the winner of the fourth Max van der Stoel award, the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Integration and Development Centre for Information and Research, which promotes inter-ethnic tolerance in Crimean schools.
Marking Australia's joining of the OSCE family as an Asian Partner for Co-operation, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith writes about finding resonance with the OSCE.
Published in English and Russian, with online editions in French and German, the OSCE Magazine can be found on the OSCE website at //www.osce.org/item/43150.html.
Readers can subscribe to the hard copy version by addressing an e-mail to oscemagazine@osce.org.