Rupel Chairs EU Troika-OSCE Meeting
Slovenska Tiskovna Agencija
April 28 2008
Slovenia
Luxembourg, 28 April (STA) – Kosovo, the South Caucasus, the
Transnistrian region and Afghanistan dominated the agenda of the EU
troika meeting with the OSCE in Luxembourg on Monday, with the chair
of the meeting, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, stressing
the supportive role of the EU and the OSCE in these areas.
Rupel said that both the EU and the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) endeavoured to ensure peace and stability
in all these areas, and that cooperation between the organisations
was of utmost importance.
On Kosovo, Minister Rupel emphasised the significance of international
coordination, in particular during the transition period. He said
that the OSCE mission should continue to work and cooperate with the
EULEX mission.
Rupel furthermore drew attention to the role played by the OSCE mission
in Kosovo, especially to the interests of the Serbian community. A
special EU representative should also be deployed to Kosovo, he said.
As regards the situation in the South Caucasus countries, the Slovenian
foreign minister pointed to the elections that are to be held in the
region later this year. The EU is greatly interested in free and fair
elections and supports the work of international missions conducting
election supervision, he said.
Moving on to conflicts in the South Caucasus, Rupel confirmed that
the EU supported OSCE endeavours within the Minsk Group aimed at a
peaceful, sustainable and fair resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue. He also expressed hopes that a meeting between the foreign
ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan would be held soon.
Touching on Transnistria, Rupel informed his counterparts about
the topics discussed during the recent visit of Moldova’s Deputy
Prime Minister Andrei Stratan to Ljubljana. He also expressed his
satisfaction over the recent meeting between Moldova’s President
Vladimir Voronin and the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov.
The discussion about Afghanistan also included issues of the central
Asian region. In this context, Rupel emphasised the leading role
of the EU in the transition of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, also in relation to programmes concerning
border security.