Due to a threat of power failure in the centre of Athens, today the Greek Foreign Ministry was introduced with the priorities of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Athens takes over the rotational representation from Finland, and in 2010 will hand it over to Kazakhstan, the first country from Central Asia, which will represent the organization. Officially, the priorities of the Greek representatives will be introduced on January 15^th, in front of the board of the permanent representatives in the headquarters of OSCE in Vienna. Today, they were announced in front of the accredited ambassadors in Athens and diplomatic journalists.

“Greece takes over the representation of OSCE in a hard moment during the world-wide financial crisis and in a languishing peace time in Kavkaz, which for us will be region of priority,” said the Greek foreign minister, Dora Bakoianni. She stressed that with the strategic role of Russia, Kavkaz and Central Asia are the main “diplomatic players” for the European Union and NATO. Bakoianni also said that she has discussed the ideas of the Greek chairmanship of OSCE with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. “Our ambition is to present ourselves as experienced mediators and to present active diplomacy, in order to gather the arguing sides around the table,” also said the Greek foreign minister.

According to her the conflict in Kavkaz provides an opportunity to over think the whole concept about the region and to find long-term peace solutions. She announced that she will pay series of visits to the region right after the official taking over the chairmanship in mid January. Dora Bakoianni stressed that Afghanistan and Kosovo will remain as priorities for the organization, as well as all the 19 missions, which OSCE currently deals with. They are extremely diverse – from the return of the refugees in Croatia, through defusing the radioactive weapons in Ukraine, till the fight with drug trafficking and the effective security of the Afghan border.

During the introduction, a great impression was made by the absence of the American ambassador in Athens, Daniel Speckhard, because yesterday the spokesman of the Greek foreign ministry, Giorgos Koumoutzkos, described the ambassador’s on the Macedonian topic as “limited.” On the other hand, the Russian ambassador Vladimir Vdovin and his Bulgarian colleague Andrei Karaslavov were present in the conference hall.