OSCE Chair Calls For Multilateral Cooperation To Settle Conflicts, Build Peaceful Future

Opening the 26th OSCE Ministerial Council in Slovakia's Bratislava on Thursday, the organization's Chairperson-in-Office, Miroslav Lajcak, addressed the participating foreign ministers and high-ranking officials with a call for greater cooperation and multilateralism in settling regional and international conflicts, as well as to reduce the humanitarian impact of wars for a safer future

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th December, 2019) Opening the 26th OSCE Ministerial Council in Slovakia's Bratislava on Thursday, the organization's Chairperson-in-Office, Miroslav Lajcak, addressed the participating foreign ministers and high-ranking officials with a call for greater cooperation and multilateralism in settling regional and international conflicts, as well as to reduce the humanitarian impact of wars for a safer future.

"Multilateralism requires commitment and compromise. And in the case of the OSCE, it is built on consensus. But consensus should not be seen as a way to force through our own priorities. It is not a weapon to be used, to hold processes hostage to unrelated issues. Those of us who believe in this system - of co-operation, of dialogue, of joint solutions - need to show our support in the way we conduct our affairs. Daily," the OSCE head stressed.

Lajcak, who is also Slovakia's foreign minister, emphasized his country's � as a chair of the organization for 2019 � focus on crises and conflicts within the OSCE borders.

The official stressed the organization's role in mediating the crisis in Ukraine's conflict-hit Donbas region, which he recently visited to attend the reopening of the bridge at the Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint.

The Slovak foreign minister also called on member states to show greater political will and to engage in constructive dialogues more actively.

"I strongly believe that the OSCE's efforts, from de-escalating tensions to opening channels for new dialogue, are invaluable. And, that this Organization will be the first to offer its support for concrete steps towards peace," the OSCE head said.

The Ministerial Council is the organization's most important annual event, gathering together the ministers of foreign affairs of the OSCE's participating countries and 11 partner states from the Mediterranean and Asia.

The current OSCE chairmanship will be taken over from Slovakia by Albania on January 1, 2020.