VICE FM WORKS IN BASEL

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A delegation of cabinet members led by the Vice minister of Foreign Affairs and Economic Cooperation D.Gankhuyag attended the 21st Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held December 4-5 in Basel, the Swiss Confederation. The council gathered over 1,200 delegates from 57 states and representatives of 11 partners and of the United Nations, European Union and NATO. The head of the Mongolian delegation D.Gankhuyag gave speech to the gathered, then ran meetings with the OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier, a director for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Michael Georg Link, and a head of the Austrian delegation to discuss matters of bilateral relations and cooperation, issues of mutual interests and the regional security. The OSCE Ministerial Council, which mainly debated the fight against terrorism and some unprecedented threats for the Eurasian regional security, discussed the disarmament, cruel punishment and torturing, disaster risk reduction, combating corruption, follow-up actions for Helsinki+40, settlement of crises concerning Ukraine, improving gender equality, prevention of violation against girls and women, and amendment to the OSCE Action Plan adopted in 2004, and others. The presidency of the OSCE will be transferred in 2015 to the Republic of Serbia from the current chair Swiss Confederation, to Germany—in 2016, and to Austria—in 2017. Mongolia became a cooperation partner of the OSCE in 2004 and the participating state--in 2012.