Skopje, 4 January 2023 (MIA) – Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani told Wednesday’s press briefing that he will travel to Ukraine in his first visit as OSCE Chair.  

“I plan to travel to Ukraine in my first visit as OSCE Chair, because Ukraine will probably dominate the Chairpersonship, although I hope that the circumstances will change during the year, so OSCE will have a different role in establishing peace and ending aggression. But, I plan to travel to Kiev in my first visit sometime in mid-January, after I present the priorities of the Chairpersonship in Vienna on January 12,” said Osmani.    

Osmani noted that there is currently no OSCE mission in Ukraine after Russia vetoed its extension, and the country would need to find a way as Chair to restore the Organization in Ukraine.  

According to him, it would require skill, diplomacy, activity to turn all the different views into decisions that will be important to maintain the organization.   

Osmani commented on the complex international relations, the broken security architecture of Europe, noting the active military aggression of one member country against another member country of the Organization as a special challenge to restoring the functionality of the organization itself.  

“And that is not easy. It’s very difficult, and to put it bluntly – it’s the hardest thing in politics. Finding a way to convince two sides in a dialogue, is difficult even in ordinary life and in politics it’s even more difficult. But the common people, the citizens, the civilians – they want peace and stability. And that is our starting position – the people; it’s about people,” Osmani said.