The 18th Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council was conducted on 6 and 7 December 2011, in Vilnius. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr. Gregory Vashadze, headed the Delegation of Georgia.
In his intervention the Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized the importance of adapting the OSCE to new threats and challenges and ensuring its effectiveness in all three dimensions. Emphasis was also made on the necessity to forge genuine security community - a new common space, free of dividing lines, spheres of influence and tensions. Minister of Foreign Affairs once again called on Russia to engage in a dialogue with Georgia with an aim of ensuring peaceful conflict resolution.
Unfortunately in Vilnius too, like during the previous Ministerial meetings since 2005, Russia rejected the calls to engage constructively in the drafting of the Ministerial statement on Georgia. This attitude demonstrates that Moscow is still unable to embrace the calls for dialogue even on the relatively minor issues pertaining to the conflict resolution. Thus the Ministers missed yet another opportunity to strengthen the role of the OSCE in the conflict resolution process in Georgia and to establish the OSCE presence in the occupied regions.
During the Ministerial, the OSCE participating States agreed to the Decision on Elements of the Conflict Cycle, which reaffirmed the necessity to increase efforts to strengthen the OSCE capabilities in early warning, early action, dialogue facilitation, mediation support and post-conflict rehabilitation on an operation level.
One of the achievements of Georgia during 2011 within the OSCE framework was the resuscitation of the discussions on the general topic of internally displaced persons and refugees throughout the OSCE area. Throughout the year Lithuanian chairmanship organized a number of events and thematic seminars related to the IDPs and refugees in the OSCE area. These discussions were crowned with the tabling of the Ministerial Council Decision on Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. Once again the consensus was broken on the decision by the Russian Federation. However, the process of discussions has been activated and Georgia hopes that in 2012 OSCE community will be able to adopt a relevant decision on the IDPs and refugees.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia values the endeavors of the Lithuanian Chairmanship aimed at strengthening the role of the OSCE and welcomes the incoming Irish Chairmanship of the OSCE.