Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
July 1 2005

OSCE Parliamentarians Meet In Washington

1 July 2005 (RFE/RL) — Parliamentarians from the 55-member countries
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE,
start five days of talks in Washington today.

Chairman Dimitrij Rupel, who is also Slovenia’s foreign minister, is
scheduled to address the 14th annual opening session, expected to be
attended by some 300 representatives from North America, the
Caucasus, and Central Asia.

Discussions are expected to focus on piracy, human and arms
trafficking, and combating terrorism. The situations in
Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and Moldova are also on the agenda.

At today’s session, Ukraine’s Television Channel Five is due to be
awarded the 10th OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy.

The OSCE, based in Vienna, was founded in 1995. Its predecessor, the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, was created in 1973
to provide a forum for Cold War opponents to communicate.