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Kozhara: As OSCE chair, Ukraine made “small but concrete step” to settle Dniester conflict

KIEV, December 06, 21:54 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine has succeeded in making “small but concrete steps” to find a solution to the Dniester conflict, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara, who presides the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2013, said on Friday after a meeting of OSCE foreign ministers.

“Promoting the settlement of the Dniester conflict was among the priorities of Ukraine’s presidency in the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe,” he told a news conference. “We organized five meeting in the Five Plus Two format, two top-level meetings involving parties to the conflict. We have succeeded in making small but concrete steps geared to build up trust between the parties and promote security in the region.”

OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier explained why the meeting of the OSCE foreign minister had yielded no resolution on Afghanistan. Such documents needed a consensus but a number of participants had been against it, he said, adding that it was not a step backwards and efforts on the Afghan problem would be continued.

“Ukraine spared no effort but, regrettably, no resolution was passed,” Kozhara noted. In his words, this failure stemmed “not from principal consideration but rather from regional differences in opinions.