OSCE and Serbia's Chairmanship in 2015

OSCE and Serbia's Chairmanship in 2015

One of the main topics in front of minister Dacic is definitely Serbia’s Chairmanship over OSCE in 2015. Minister presented Serbia’s Chairmanship Programme in Vienna this July. It is already announced that Serbia will be host of December’s OSCE ministerial meeting which will represent the introduction of Serbia’s OSCE Chairmanship. Mr. Dacic stressed that ‘Serbia doesn’t want to be part of the problem, but it wants to be the part of problems resolving’. He also believes that Serbia’s negotiating experience with Kosovo’s Albanians will be helpful during Serbia’s chairmanship. During his address in front of the OSCE’s Standing Committee Mr. Dacic presented the main goals of Serbia’s chairmanship. These goals include support to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, strengthening of cooperation and post-conflict rebuilding of the Western Balkans, support to the dialogue in so called ‘frozen conflicts’. Mr. Dacic announced that Serbia will organize Ecological-Economic Forum in 2015 and that Serbia will initiate adopting of the Youth Action Plan in Security Area. Serbia will strongly support fight against terrorism, organized crime and corruption during its OSCE leadership. Minister told that he will visit all OSCE missions in Balkans including the one in Pristina. At the beginning of December Swiss town of Basel will be host of the OSCE ministerial conference which will be first step of Swiss delegating of OSCE chairmanship to Serbia. It is expected that Serbia will chair first session of the OSCE Standing Committee in the middle of January 2015.  Minister Dacic expressed hope that Serbia will be able to help Russia and Ukraine to resolve the current misunderstanding in Ukrainian crisis. He called president Putin and president Poroshenko to find the route toward mutual understanding and peace. Serbian head of Diplomacy and First Deputy Prime Minister used his presence at the UN GA to present his views on OSCE’s role in resolving European security crisis. At the beginning of October Mr. Dacic visited Finland and spoke with his colleague Mr. Tuomioja. This visit was very important having in mind that Serbia will preside over the OSCE in the 40^th year since the adoption of the ‘Helsinki Accords’. It will be a great opportunity for Serbia and Finland to mark this important jubilee. Minister Dacic held numerous meetings with his Swiss colleagues including Mr. Didier Burkhalter, the foreign minister of Switzerland and Ambassador Gerard Studman, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman for the Western Balkans. No doubt it shows good cooperation between Switzerland and Serbia, the two co-presiding countries over OSCE in 2014/15.