Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ann Linde, the new Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) for the Organization for Security and Co–operation in Europe (OSCE), spoke at the UN Security Council about Georgia’s occupied territories.

“During my visit to Georgia in February I had the opportunity to meet President Zourabichvili and then-Prime Minister Gakharia and to reiterate the OSCE’s full support for the Geneva International Discussions and related Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism formats. This dialogue process, co-chaired by the OSCE, UN, and EU, is another important example of UN-OSCE cooperation in conflict resolution.

In addition to meeting with leaders in both government and civil society, I also visited one of Georgia’s administrative boundary lines in its conflict context, where I saw first-hand the need for increased contacts and communication between local communities. Together with the European Union, the UN and the OSCE should seek to step up our joint efforts to build the confidence necessary to bring the conflict closer to its resolution”, - said Linde.