The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, will participte tomorrow in the informal meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers, hosted by the Austrian Presidency at the Mauerbach Castle, near Vienna. The meeting represents the major preparatory event prior to the OSCE Ministerial Council scheduled to take place in Vienna on 7 and 8 December.
In Mauerbach, Minister Alfano will address the audience at the plenary session to highlight the important commitment Italy has undertaken within the Organisation: “As a member of the OSCE Troika and as Chair of the Mediterranean Contact Group, we will take the relay from the Austrian Presidency to chair the Organisation in 2018. We feel very honoured and have accepted the task with a sense of responsibility, being aware that to re-establish confidence and security ‘from Vancouver to Vladivostok’ we need to constantly promote dialogue and cooperation.”
Two major themes that will top tomorrow’s agenda: the prevention and countering of violent extremism and radicalisation, which generate terrorism, along with the relaunching of a dialogue focused on security challenges, with a view to bring back a sustainable European security setting. Minister Alfano will also call OSCE’s attention to the issue of migration and human mobility in the Mediterranean -“challenges – also from a security point of view- as well as opportunities, to which OSCE’s Mediterranean Conference will be dedicated and that Italy will host in Palermo on 24 and 25 October”.
In between the traditional family photographs and a working lunch, the Minister will also hold bilateral meetings with his colleagues, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergeij Lavrov, and Swiss Foreign Minister, Didier Burkhalter.
