OSCE MUST SOLVE FROZEN CONFLICTS: NEW FINNISH FOREIGN MINISTER

Agence France Presse
April 10 2008

Finland’s new foreign minister Alexander Stubb called for a solution
to the so-called "frozen conflicts" in eastern Europe and central
Asia on Thursday in Vienna.

"We must seriously look for solutions to the so-called frozen
conflicts. My aim is to re-energise efforts towards peaceful settlement
of these conflicts," Stubb said in his first address to the permanent
council of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE), of which Finland is currently the president.

Stubb was named as Finland’s new foreign minister after his
predecessor Ilkka Kanerva was forced to resign last week in the wake
of a text-message scandal, which involved him bombarding a stripper
with mobile phone messages of a sexual nature.

The OSCE has played a mediating role in disputes over Abkhazia,
South Ossetia, Transdniestr and Nagorno-Karabakh, four breakaway
regions in the former Soviet bloc that have been refused independence.

The disputes between Georgia and Russia over the status of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia were one of the reasons the former Soviet state’s
application for a NATO membership action plan was blocked at the
Bucharest summit last week.

Stubb also announced an informal "quintet" meeting on June 1-2 in
Helsinki between Finland, Spain, which chaired the OSCE in 2007,
and the next three countries to take over the chairmanship: Greece,
Kazakhstan and Lithuania.

He emphasised however that the Finnish chairmanship would not deviate
from the programme it announced in January and called for continued
work in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

"The three Cs — continuity, coherence and co-operation — will guide
us in our endeavours," he said.

Stubb was named as Finland’s new foreign minister after his
predecessor Ilkka Kanerva was forced to resign last week in the wake
of a text-message scandal, which involved him bombarding a stripper
with mobile phone messages of a sexual nature.