Minister Rau inaugurates Poland’s chairmanship of the OSCE
13.01.2022
‘We need to reinvigorate the debate about European security. Let us start a process that will help us to uphold the Helsinki Conference principles in full conformity with international law,’ said Poland’s head of diplomacy in the meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, marking the official beginning of the country’s chairmanship of the OSCE on 1 January.
In the meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, Minister Rau introduced the programme and priorities of the Polish presidency of the organization. In his speech, he emphasized the importance of the mechanisms and formats developed by the OSCE for supporting peace processes relating to regional and protracted conflicts.
Minister Rau called attention to the need to respect international law as the way to safeguard, for the international community, a co-existence free of violence and threats. Among other priorities of the Polish chairmanship, he mentioned the recovery of the economies following the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as assistance to the population suffering from conflicts. Thereafter he met with OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid, representatives of participating states, and heads of OSCE institutions. Current issues of importance to the OSCE, including without limitation the situation in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, as well as matters relating to the organization’s annual budget, were also discussed in the meeting.
The next item on the agenda was the annual meeting of the organization’s current chairperson, that being the foreign minister of the state holding the chairmanship, with the heads of the OSCE’s field missions and autonomous institutions. Minister Rau outlined the key goals of the Polish chairmanship and heard the missions and institutions’ action plans for 2022. The OSCE is currently financing 14 field missions, such as the mandate of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chair-in-Office on the conflict dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference (Nagorno-Karabakh), the High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Representative on the Media, and Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) headquartered in Warsaw.
Furthermore, Minister Rau conversed with President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis, having also taken office on 1 January, as part of the Swiss president’s first foreign trip. Polish foreign minister also reaffirmed the very good mutual relations and active political, business and cultural dialogue. Thereafter he discussed the Polish chairmanship plans. Next, he attended a briefing for Polish media.
To end the day’s work, Minister Rau opened a cultural event combined with a reception marking the official inauguration of Poland’s chairmanship of the OSCE.
The latter will span from 1 January to 31 December 2022. Its symbolic end will be the OSCE Ministerial Council in Łódź on 1–2 December. In the meantime, in Poland, as well as in Vienna and other locations, a number of topic-focused and expert events will be held under the chairmanship.
Łukasz Jasina
MFA Press Spokesperson
Photo: Sebastian Indra / Polish MFA