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OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg

The OSCE Ministerial Council is being chaired by Germany in Hamburg.

07.12.2016
© dpa/Ute Grabowsky/Photothek.Net - OSCE

Shortly before the start of the OSCE Ministerial Council, which is being chaired by Germany on 8 and 9 December 2016 in Hamburg, Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier underscored the organization’s importance: “Peace in Europe is being endangered for the first time in the lives of an entire generation,” he told the newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt. “The OSCE is the only pan-European organization in which all of the states from East and West plus the USA and Canada are united and can meet to discuss the European peace order and security architecture.”

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the largest regional security organization in the world. Its key tasks are to secure the European peace order, to prevent violent conflict in Europe and seek solutions for existing conflicts within the OSCE area. The OSCE Ministerial Council is the central forum for dialogue. The foreign ministers of the 57 OSCE states meet once a year to discuss urgent security policy issues in Europe.

This year’s meeting in Hamburg will be focusing mainly on the OSCE efforts to resolve the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the threats from international terrorism and the role of the OSCE in conflict prevention, in mediation, in monitoring and in post-conflict rehabilitation. More than 50 foreign ministers have agreed to attend. Altogether 78 delegations from 56 states with around 1,300 delegation participants are expected in Hamburg. Mr Steinmeier consciously chose Hamburg as the venue for the meeting, because the city stands for open-mindedness, tolerance and exchange.

OSCE Ministerial Council on 8 and 9 December 2016 in Hamburg

Special: German OSCE Chairmanship in 2016

www.osce.org

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