Foreign Minister Kanerva to attend the OSCE Ministerial Council in Madrid

Press release 260/2007
26 November 2007

Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva will represent Finland at the 15th Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to be held on 29–30 November 2007 in Madrid. The foreign ministers of all 56 states participating in the OSCE have been invited to the meeting. The Finnish delegation will also include State Secretary Teija Tiilikainen.

Finland holds the OSCE Chairmanship for the period 1 January–31 December 2008 and in Madrid, Foreign Minister Kanerva will be presented as the next chairman of the OSCE. The meeting will decide, among other things, on organisation of the next Ministerial Council in Finland in December 2008.

The central political issues for discussion at the Ministerial Council concern regional questions in Kosovo, Georgia and Moldova, selection of the country to hold the OSCE chairmanship after Finland in 2009, and commitments pertaining to OSCE election observation.

Foreign Minister Kanerva will have several bilateral meetings during the Ministerial Council.

Additional information: Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, Head of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, mobile tel. +358 400 330 406; Juha Kirstilä, Press Attaché to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5012, mobile tel. +358 40 552 8200