OSCE Secretary General in Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s 2013 Chairmanship

OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier started his official visit to Ukraine on 10 September 2012 with a meeting with Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko to discuss the preparations for the Ukrainian Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2013.

They discussed co-ordination between the future Chairmanship and the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, and Zannier stressed that the Secretariat is ready to help ensure continuity of efforts. Ukraine is a member of this year’s OSCE Troika, which also includes Lithuania and Ireland as the previous and current Chairmanships.

The two-day visit includes meetings with Vyacheslav Yatsiuk, the Head of the OSCE Task Force at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, and Oleg Bilorus, Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) and the Head of the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the OSCE PA, as well as a lecture at the Ukraine’s Diplomatic Academy.

Zannier is also meeting with Dame Audrey Glover, the head of the election observation mission deployed by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to observe the 28 October parliamentary elections in Ukraine, and with staff of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

A  decision on Ukraine’s 2013 chairmanship of the OSCE was taken by consensus by the 56 participating States in 2010.