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Secretary General addresses OSCE ministers in Basel

The need for a concerted and coordinated effort of the main international organisations addressing the crisis in Ukraine and the urgency of humanitarian relief were key messages of the address by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland at the meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Basel, Switzerland, on 4 December 2014.

The key messages of the Secretary General’s address were the need for upholding the dialogue between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights, creating a space for diplomacy and expanding the space for humanitarian relief to help end the human suffering caused by the conflict, which may lead to political talks on the settlement of the crisis. He also focused on the roles that the OSCE and Council of Europe have to play in helping to resolve the crisis without any duplication or competition, on the importance of responsible approach and political goodwill on part of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and on the need of further reforms in Ukraine that would help pave the way to stabilizing the situation.

In Basel, the Secretary General also held bilateral meetings with the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister for Europe of the UK David Lidington, Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei and with Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Belgium that currently holds the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.

The meeting held under the Swiss Chairmanship of the OSCE brought together foreign ministers and delegations from the 57 OSCE participating States and major international organisations to discuss key issues related to politico-military, economic and environmental, and human-rights related aspects of security. The discussions focused on the international response to the current crisis in and around Ukraine

Secretary General Strasbourg 4 December 2014
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