The Council of Albanian Ambassadors welcomes Albania’s OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office for 2020. Chairing the largest regional security organization is a foreign policy goal of the Republic of Albania that dates back to early times.
As an undertaking with an all – inclusive character, this Chairmanship should serve the further promotion of Albania’s strategic objectives, which enjoy the support of the entire domestic political spectrum.
The OSCE Chairmanship-in -Office is a major achievement for the country; it is an indication of the reliability of the OSCE membership on the democratic transformations in Albania during the last three decades and of the contribution that Albanian diplomacy has rendered for years to this Organization and beyond.
OSCE is the first multilateral organization which Albania joined after the fall of communism and its opening towards the West; it has continuously supported the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law in Albania as well as the consolidation of security and stability in the Balkans.
To this end, Albania has its own responsibility and obligation to the Organization, in order to justify its trust, proving at the same time that it is also capable of observing itself the OSCE norms, principles and commitments in the areas of human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.
The CAA comends and supports the priorities that Albania presented last year, under the moto “ implementing the OSCE commitments, together”
The expected attention of Albanian Chairmanship-in-Office to political developments in Western Balkans is an opportunity to further step up regional cooperation through strengthening good-neighbourliness, inter-ethnic reconciliation, the full participation and involvement of Kosovo in all initiatives aimed at consolidating peace and stability in the region, including in the OSCE frame.
The Council of Albanian Ambassadors extends its thanks to the diplomatic corp that has worked with devotion to accomplish this goal back from the time when the application for this chairmanship was filed for the first time from Albania in 2006.
In the early 2000, the Albanian diplomacy chaired the negotiations under Article IV of the Dayton Agreement, conducted under the auspices of OSCE and afterwards it chaired with noticeable professionalism the Forum for Security Cooperation, which manages issues related to one of the most important aspects of the Organization – the political and military dimension.
In 2010, Albania became for the first time the host of two very important events of the Organization – the Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the OSCE High Level Meeting for Human Rights, which were successfully crowned in Tirana.
It is also under this very context that Albania is taking the OCSE Chairmanship- in-Office.
The CAA invites the Government to mobilize the best human resources of the Albanian diplomatic service and administration, so that the numerous files of the OSCE mandate would be managed with competence and professionalism.
The Council of Albanian Ambassadors forwards its best wishes for good proceedings and a full – fledged success in meeting this serious challenge to the staff of the Mission of the Republic of Albania to the OSCE, to the Task Force and to the Prime Minister&Minister of Foreign Affairs, who will politically guide OSCE, in his capacity as its Chairman-in-Office.
