Serbia to focus on Western Balkans during OSCE chairmanship

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Thursday the Western Balkans, regional cooperation and peace process in Ukraine would be the priorities of Serbia's OSCE chairmanship.

"I think our region is on the right path and I expect that our chairmanship will provide additional incentive to regional cooperation," he said at a reception held to mark the end of Switzerland's OSCE chairmanship and start of Serbia's.

According to Dacic, Serbia, as a candidate for EU membership, is sincerely committed to improving cooperation with its neighbours and countries of the region as a whole.

Serbia's chairmanship of the OSCE, which starts on January 1, 2015, will be very important because of the crisis in Ukraine that has posed as the chief issue during Switzerland's chairmanship, since 2014 was a year filled with challenges in the area covered by the OSCE, he noted, adding that the world faced one of the biggest crises since the end of the Cold War.

The OSCE reacted quickly to the crisis in extremely complex political circumstances and sent a special observation mission to Ukraine, which demonstrated the organisation's efficiency and stressed its global significance, he remarked.

"We understand that Ukraine will remain the dominant topic for the OSCE in 2015 and that the same level of involvement will be required. Themain priority of our chairmanship in that context will be to stimulate a comprehensive peace process," he said, pointing out that the conclusions of the ministerial meeting in Basel had confirmed support to the OSCE's activities in Ukraine from the participant countries.

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