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Switzerland takes over OSCE chairmanship

02 January 2014 14:37 (UTC +04:00)

Switzerland will closely align its priorities with Serbia in a two-year working plan framework to ensure continuity of OSCE actions and improve its effectiveness. The new OSCE chairperson-in-office, Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, said that progress can only be made step by step and for that reason the government in Bern values bringing continuity to the OSCE.

Burkhalter said geographic priorities are the Western Balkans and South Caucasus, adding that he had appointed special representatives for each of the regions. "In the Western Balkans, we wish to make reconciliation and regional co-operation a topic of discussion," he said in a statement. "In addition, the OSCE should play a supporting role in the implementation of (last year's) Belgrade-Pristina agreement" designed to reduce frictions between Serbia and its former province Kosovo. "As for the South Caucasus, we will work with existing formats to support the search for a resolution to the protracted conflicts," he said, referring to a region disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.