The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Serbia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic is visiting Helsinki where meetings take place to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act.

“I am not too happy to celebrate this anniversary with a reminder of a situation similar to that of 40 years ago when the Organization was fraught with big divisions and problems. This shows that security and cooperation in Europe is not an issue that has been settled once and for all and that is why this Organization plays a large and an important role in the stability and peace of Europe.

This year, a number of meetings are being held in Helsinki - now we are concluding the High-Level Informal Meeting of State Secretaries in the Ministries of the participating States with the attendance of Foreign Ministers of the Troika Member States and of course with the participation of the Finnish Foreign Minister.

We are grateful to the Finnish President for taking the time to meet us. What is important to stress is that this is not only a reminder of the past but also a debate on the way forward in the future. How to work on an early warning system for problems existing in certain countries and how to develop the best mechanisms for action where there are such problems”, said Dacic.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office recalled that the Organization had 57 participating States, that there were many hotspots in the OSCE area, with the current situation being that, apart from the crisis in Ukraine, the OSCE was also busy dealing with other protracted conflicts.

“The role of the OSCE is indispensable in these cases, because the OSCE is the only organization with a field presence in these countries. In Ukraine, for, instance, the only international presence is that of the OSCE. That is why I am going to travel to Ukraine next week, which is extremely important.

Also, my Special Representative coordinates the work of the Trilateral Contact Group dealing with the attempts to move the crisis from the security to the political level or to get the political process started.

Today, we had the Troika Ministerial level Meeting here in Helsinki. We talked about the situation in Ukraine and about the proposals advanced by the Panel of Eminent Persons, with regard to the future of our Organization. We also discussed ways to be considered, by the end of the year, to ensure modus operandi for our field presences or missions”, said the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, and pointed out that the next Troika Meeting would be in Magdeburg, Germany.