‘FROZEN CONFLICTS’ AMONG OSCE’S CHALLENGES – NEW CHAIRMAN SAYS
Civil Georgia, Georgia
Jan 11 2007
Among the challenges needing the OSCE’s attention are the so-called
"frozen conflicts" in Georgia, Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh, the
new OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos, said while addressing the organization’s Permanent Council
in Vienna on January 11.
"In each of these disputes, walls have been built up, dividing peoples,
and these walls must be torn down. To achieve a sustainable solution,
we must intervene now to provide a solid basis for progress," he said.
In his speech Miguel Angel Moratinos outlined the fight against
terrorism, protecting the environment, encouraging participation
in pluralistic societies and strengthening the OSCE’s role as top
priorities of the organization for 2007.
The Spanish Foreign Minister holds the rotating OSCE chairmanship
for 2007, following in the footsteps of Belgium Foreign Minister
Karel De Gucht in 2006. The latter put solving frozen conflicts in
former Soviet states and tackling organized crime as the OSCE’s top
priorities for 2006.