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OSCE Chairman-in-Office to visit South Caucasus

Official

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, will visit Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan on 25-28 February.

He will meet the three countries' presidents, foreign ministers and parliamentary speakers as well as with representatives of opposition parties to discuss OSCE-related topics, bilateral and international issues.

Elections also will be discussed, as all three South Caucasus countries will have elections this year. The OSCE monitored the 19 February presidential elections in Armenia Georgia will hold parliamentary elections in May and voters in Azerbaijan elect a new president in October.

The Chairman-in-Office seeks to promote progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict resolution. The OSCE has a mandate to support the sides in their search for the resolution of these conflicts.

Minister Kanerva will use the trip to emphasize the importance of stability and democratic reforms and the role of the OSCE in supporting such development in the countries.

The so-called protracted conflicts erupted in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union dissolved.