Dacic: Decision on extending OSCE mission's mandate due soon

BELGRADE - A decision on extending the mandate of the OSCE mission in Ukraine will be adopted soon, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic announced on Tuesday.

As the OSCE chair, Serbia is coordinating talks on extending the mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine by 12 months, rather than by 6 months, as has been the practice so far, Dacic said in an interview for a Finnish television documentary that will mark the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act.

The talks should be concluded soon and the support offered by the Normandy Four and the EU for the work of the Mission indicates how valuable its role on the ground is, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The crisis in Ukraine and around it has shown that OSCE is the best platform for overcoming growing divisions and finding jointly acceptable solutions, Dacic noted.

The deployment of two missions in Ukraine - the Special Monitoring Mission and the Observer Mission at the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk - is the most visible example of OSCE's ability to act collectively towards a de-escalation of a crisis, even in a time of deep divisions, said the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.

Photo Tanjug, M. Jelesijevic (archive)