OSCE Chairperson-in-Office: Our main challenge is search for solution to crisis in Ukraine

Italy’s Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Angelino Alfano intends to pay much attention to the search for a solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Alfano stated this at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

 “Our main challenge is the search for a solution to the crisis in and around Ukraine,” he said. “Mutual provocations have generated a climate that risks compromising the confidence-building measures hitherto adopted by the sides. Our hope is to help to reverse this trend by encouraging new steps towards the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.”

In addition to supporting the intensification of negotiating efforts under the Normandy Format and the Trilateral Contact Group, Alfano said that the Chairmanship will support with all its energy the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. 

He also announced he would visit Ukraine and the Russian Federation from 30 January to 1 February.

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