OSCE Secretary General meets with Armenian President and Foreign Minister during visit to Yerevan

YEREVAN, 30 May 2017 – OSCE Secretary Lamberto Zannier had meetings today with Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian during his visit to Yerevan.

“I had useful discussions with President Sargsyan and with Foreign Minister Nalbandian on possibilities for continued co-operation between Armenia and the OSCE following the discontinuation of the Office in Yerevan’s operations on 31 August 2017,” Zannier said.

The OSCE Secretary General noted that his visit to Yerevan is a sign of the OSCE’s interest in continuing the Organization’s engagement with Armenia in line with existing OSCE commitments across all three security dimensions – the politico-military, the economic and environmental and the human dimension.

“I would like to see the achievements of the Office preserved and built upon as far as possible,” Zannier stressed.

The closure of the OSCE Office in Yerevan follows months of negotiations and extensive efforts by the 2016 German Chairmanship and the current Austrian Chairmanship to resolve the deadlock on the extension of the Office’s mandate.

Zannier visited the Office in Yerevan to meet with the staff and pay tribute to their dedication and highly professional work.

Since its establishment in 2000, activities of the Office in Yerevan included, among other things, assistance with police reforms and support for reviewing and streamlining the national regulatory frameworks affecting business activity and the daily lives of citizens. In 2006, the Office established a Programme Implementation Presence in the Syunik region to contribute to sustainable development.