Foreign Minister Tuomioja to OSCE meeting in Romania

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will travel to Romania on Monday, 3 December. He will take part in the ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to be held in Bucharest on December 3-4. Foreign ministers from almost all 55 OSCE member countries will arrive to the meeting, including Colin Powell of the United States and Igor Ivanov of Russia.

The main item on the agenda is an OSCE action plan for combating terrorism. As an organisation for comprehensive security the OSCE concentrates on preventing new kinds of security threats on long term. Five of the twenty three missions of the OSCE are located in Centreal Asia. Since last spring the OSCE has been transferring its focus to this region.

The structures of the OSCE are also going to be reformed in Bucharest to correspond better with current security questions. A special emphasis will be on cooperation between organisations. The strength of the OSCE has been its felixibility and ability for rapid reaction, shown, among other things, in the founding of the Macedonian police force.

From Bucharest Foreign Minister Tuomioja will continue for a visit to Slovakia. In Bratislava he will meet President Rudolf Schuster, Prime Minister Mikulás Dzurinda and Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan.
They will discuss the enlargement of the European Union and NATO and the future of the EU.

Additional information: Senior adviser Tarja Kantola,
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