OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of Austria H.E. Sebastian Kurz made a working visit to Ukraine on 16-17 January 2017. During the visit he met with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Anfriy Parubiy and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin.

The negotiation agenda included issues related to efforts of the 2017 OSCE Chairmanship aimed at resolving the crisis in and around Ukraine, including deployment of the OSCE police mission in the certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, strengthening the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission capacities to ensure effective monitoring and verification of the Minsk agreements implementation as well as further cooperation within the military-political, economic and human dimensions of the OSCE.

The Ukrainian side also urged the Austrian Chairmanship to exert  maximum efforts to enable release of all Ukrainian hostages, including those that held illegally on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Ukraine stated its readiness to provide full support to efforts of the Austrian OSCE Chairmanship aimed at restoring respect to the OSCE fundamental principles and commitments, that constitute a basis of the OSCE and are essential for strengthening peace and security at the European continent.

Join press conference by Pavlo Klimkin and Sebastian Kurz (MFA of Ukraine, January 17, 2017)