Tuesday, February 14, 2012

New OSCE Head 'Does Not Exclude' Resolution Of Frozen Conflicts

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos (file photo) (OSCE)

January 11, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The new head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says he "does not exclude" the possibility of resolving in 2007 some of the frozen conflicts in the former Soviet Union.

TEXT SIZE - +

January 11, 2007

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who succeeds his Belgian counterpart Karel De Gucht as OSCE chairman in office, said any approach to a resolution should be cautious and realistic.

He said there is no "magic wand" to solve the frozen conflicts in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester and Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Moratinos credited the OSCE's Minsk Group with recent "positive developments" in talks on the ethnic-Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.

He said, however, it would be wrong to expect "short-term miracles" in resolving the dispute.

Moratinos made his comments in Vienna, where he was outlining the OSCE's targets for 2007.

Kazakhstan And The OSCE

READY TO LEAD THE OSCE? Kazakhstan has been lobbying to be granted the rotating chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009. In March, current OSCE head Karel De Gucht visited the country and said Kazakhstan is better prepared to head the OSCE than any other Central Asian country. But concerns about the state of democracy, the media, and ethnic relations make Kazakhstan's bid extremely controversial....(more)