Rome, 6 December 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will in future be headed by Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the 57 participating states agreed in Malta on Friday.

At the OSCE foreign ministers' meeting in the Mediterranean island state, they agreed on Sinirlioğlu's appointment to the post of secretary general, which has been vacant since September.

The 68-year-old diplomat was foreign minister for a short time in 2015 and then Turkey's permanent representative to the United Nations.

The OSCE is made up of states from Europe, North America and Asia, including Russia and Belarus. As a regional security organization based in Vienna, it is committed to stability, peace and democracy.

The German diplomat Helga Schmid ended her tenure as OSCE secretary general in September after Moscow opposed a longer term of office.

The posts of Schmid and other OSCE leaders could not be filled immediately, as Turkey and Greece wanted to push through their candidates and rejected other proposals.

In Malta, the ministers also agreed on the replacement of three other top posts in the organization, the current OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Maltese Foreign Minister Ian Borg announced.

The Greek diplomat and lawyer Maria Telalian becomes director of the Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

Dutch OSCE Ambassador Christophe Kamp becomes high commissioner on national minorities. Norway's Jan Braathu, currently head of the OSCE mission to Serbia, takes over as representative on freedom of the media.

Photo: EPA