OSCE Ministerial Troika holds meeting in Oslo

OSLO, 24 June 1999 - The OSCE Ministerial Troika, Foreign Ministers Knut Vollebæk of Norway, Bronislaw Geremek of Poland and Ambassador Jutta Stefan-Bastl representing the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Wolfang Schüssel, met today in Oslo under Norwegian chairmanship. The newly appointed Secretary General of the OSCE, Jan Kubis, also took part in the meeting, as did the newly designated head of the future OSCE Mission to Kosovo, Ambassador Daan Everts.

The Ministers expressed satisfaction that the OSCE would assume a large area of responsibility as part of the international civilian implementation mission in Kosovo. The Ministers noted that the OSCE has well-developed plans for the tasks it will take on, which are the promotion and monitoring of human rights; democratisation; preparation and supervision of elections and institution-building, including the training of police, judges and public administrators. The future OSCE Mission in Kosovo will number more than 500 people, making it the largest OSCE Mission.

The Ministers agreed on the need to urgently create a safe and secure environment for all inhabitants of the Province. The entire population must be convinced that they have a future in a democratic and multiethnic Kosovo. In this context, the Ministers stressed the importance of ensuring the protection of Orthodox shrines in the province. Ministers emphasised that rapid deployment of an international police force is an essential prerequisite to achieve this.

The Troika agreed that the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe should be placed under the auspices of the OSCE in the near future, as envisaged by the Cologne Ministerial, which adopted the Stability Pact earlier this month. The Ministers made it clear that the OSCE will make every effort to contribute substantively to the Pact. They agreed to intensify efforts to develop the OSCE's regional dimension in that context, inter alia through enhanced co-ordination among the OSCE missions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, and by making full use of expertise of OSCE Institutions.

The Chairman-in-Office briefed the Troika on his recent visits to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, and on his plans for a visit to Central Asia and the Caucasus in the autumn. The Troika expected the MoU on the continued OSCE presence in Ukraine to be signed in the near future.

The Ministers also discussed preparations for the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in November, including the status for the ongoing negotiations on a Charter on European Security. They considered that, given the necessary political will, it should be possible to adopt the Charter at the Summit .

Also taking part in the meeting were Helle Degn, the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Max van der Stoel, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Gérard Stoudmann, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and Freimut Duve, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.