Newsroom
Preventing tensions around minority issues priority for the OSCE, says Organization's Chairman
MADRID 13 September 2007
MADRID, 13 September 2007 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, said today that the Organization continued to attach particular importance to preventing ethnic strife and interstate conflagration around national minority issues in the OSCE region.
"Most contemporary conflicts are generated out of tension between various ethnic groups within states or between states over their ethnic kin across the border. The OSCE is well-equipped to meet the challenge through the quiet diplomacy of its High Commissioner," said Minister Moratinos after meeting with the newly appointed OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Ambassador Knut Vollebaek of Norway.
"I am looking forward to a productive cooperation with Ambassador Vollebaek. The High Commissioner can count on my unwavering political support that is necessary for the fulfilment of his mandate."
High Commissioner Vollebaek was in Madrid to outline his plans and priorities and to brief the Chairman-in-Office on his recent official visit to Serbia and Kosovo, a region where inter-ethnic relations remains complex and potentially explosive.
Established in 1992, the Institution of the High Commissioner on National Minorities works in confidence and is empowered to conduct on-site missions and to engage in preventive diplomacy at the earliest sign of tension involving national minority issues. It has the task to try to contain and de-escalate tensions and alert the OSCE whenever such frictions have the potential to develop into a conflict within the 56-country OSCE area.
"Most contemporary conflicts are generated out of tension between various ethnic groups within states or between states over their ethnic kin across the border. The OSCE is well-equipped to meet the challenge through the quiet diplomacy of its High Commissioner," said Minister Moratinos after meeting with the newly appointed OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Ambassador Knut Vollebaek of Norway.
"I am looking forward to a productive cooperation with Ambassador Vollebaek. The High Commissioner can count on my unwavering political support that is necessary for the fulfilment of his mandate."
High Commissioner Vollebaek was in Madrid to outline his plans and priorities and to brief the Chairman-in-Office on his recent official visit to Serbia and Kosovo, a region where inter-ethnic relations remains complex and potentially explosive.
Established in 1992, the Institution of the High Commissioner on National Minorities works in confidence and is empowered to conduct on-site missions and to engage in preventive diplomacy at the earliest sign of tension involving national minority issues. It has the task to try to contain and de-escalate tensions and alert the OSCE whenever such frictions have the potential to develop into a conflict within the 56-country OSCE area.