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The OSCE Summit starts in Astana

01 December 2010 05:12 (UTC +04:00)

According to APAâ€™s correspondent detached to Astana, 38 Heads of States and Governments, one Vice President, seven Deputy Prime Ministers, 14 Ministers and other top officials from OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation, as well as from other international and regional organizations will attend the Astana summit.

The meeting began with an opening address by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Then OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstanâ€™s Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Petros Efthymiou, and OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut make speech at the summit.

The OSCE Summit is the first since the Istanbul Summit in 1999 and the first ever held in Central Asia. Plenary sessions will continue until 2 December. A news conference by President Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev will follow the conclusion of the Summit.

The Summit was preceded by a three-part Review Conference in Warsaw, Vienna and Astana with civil society and governments to assess the Statesâ€™ implementation of OSCE commitments. It is expected that by the end of the meeting will adopt a final document. However, on the sidelines for the adoption of the final document pessimistic. It has already been prepared 5 outcome document, but countries have so far failed to reach consensus on this issue. On some items can not agree the United States and Russia.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the second half of the day within the framework of summit will hold a series of bilateral meetings. The most important meeting is the scheduled bilateral meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan. At that meeting will be discussed the regulation of Nagorno-Karabakh problem. According to unofficial information, President of Kazakhstan â€“ OSCE Chairmanship country, Nursultan Nazarbayev may attend at this meeting.