The 24th OSCE Ministerial Council, bringing together some 45 Foreign Ministers from across the OSCE region, will take place in Vienna, Austria on 7 and 8 December 2017, at the invitation of the 2017 OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.
The Ministerial Council is the culmination of Austria's 2017 OSCE Chairmanship, which placed particular emphasis on defusing conflicts, re-establishing trust and fighting radicalisation and violent extremism through renewed co-operation and concrete approaches.
OSCE Foreign Ministers will focus on efforts to settle existing conflicts in the OSCE area, in particular regarding the crisis in and around Ukraine, strengthening the OSCE's capacities to foster result-oriented co-operation, reviving strategic dialogue on regional security policy issues as well as empowering the OSCE to effectively address new global challenges. The Council will also set the course for the future work of the OSCE with Italy taking over the Chairmanship from 1 January 2018.
On the margins of the main Ministerial meeting the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to meet under the auspices of the co-0Chair of the OSCE Minsk process - France, Russia and the United States. The meeting may signal the restart of substantive discussions in efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
source: commonspace.eu with osce.org and agencies
photo: Hofburg Palace in Vienna
