HomeAlbaniaAlbania chairs the “OSCE Asian Partners for Co-operation Group” 2021

Albania chairs the “OSCE Asian Partners for Co-operation Group” 2021

Since the early 1990s the OSCE enjoys an excellent level of cooperation with the Asian Partners (Afghanistan, Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea and Thailand), who display a great interest in and commitment to the OSCE. Over the past decades, the Asian Partners have contributed substantially to the OSCE’s dialogue on many different aspects of comprehensive security.

Following the need for a specific framework of co-operation, the Contact Group with the Asian Partners for Co-operation was launched in 2003.

At the Bratislava Ministerial Council meeting in 2019 it was renamed to “OSCE Asian Partners for Co operation Group” (APCG), marking a good start towards increasing the recognition and visibility of the steady growth in relations.

The Ministerial Declaration on Co-operation adopted at the Ministerial Council meeting in Tirana in 2020 recognizes further steps towards more substantive engagement based on meaningful political dialogue and practical co-operation.

The APCG is an informal group, which enables the Asian Partners to keep abreast of events and activities in the OSCE area and the participating States to find out about the main issues concerning their region. The Asian Partners actively engage in OSCE events and activities, including through high level and expert representatives, as well as through generous contributions to OSCE extra budgetary projects.

In accordance with established procedures, Albania, as outgoing OSCE Chairmanship, is chairing the APCG in 2021. In this capacity Albania will be strongly committed to deepen and expand dialogue and co-operation, based on mutual interests and concerns shared by the OSCE participating States and the Asian Partners, such as international terrorism, threats in cyber and space, border security environment, dispatching election observers, etc. The OSCE Asian Partners for Co-operation Group will make every effort in advancing an open and frank exchange of information, as the main forum for regular dialogue between OSCE and Asian Partners. The already established relations of OSCE with a number of regional security frameworks in Asia, where the Asian Partners are part of, will be in focus of the activities of the Albanian Chair of APCG as well.

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