Malta to chair Forum for Security Cooperation of the OSCE in Vienna

The Delegation of Malta to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will assume the responsibility of chairing the Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) of the OSCE in Vienna during the month of July 1997.

The chairmanship of the FSC rotates every month. In this Forum the participating States negotiate on arms control, disarmament and confidence and security-building; intensify co-operation among themselves on matters related to security; and further the process of reducing the risk of conflict in the OSCE area.

Ambassador Maurice Abela will chair the plenary meetings of the FSC, while his deputy will chair Working Groups A and B. The politico-military consultations and negotiations in this Forum deal, not only with security issues which have been on the agenda for some time, but also with the adaptation of previous commitments taking into account the changing security challenges in the OSCE area.

The US, Canada, the Russian Federation, the European Union member States, the five Central Asian States, and all the other European States participate in the deliberations of this Forum which works on the basis of consensus. Every agreement has to meet the concerns of every single participating State.