OSCE-Council of Europe meeting held in Strasburg
Representatives of the OSCE Troika (Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Ireland), representatives of the office of the Higher Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), the ODIHR and the OSCE Secretariat represented the OSCE at the meeting. The Council of Europe was represented by Permanent Representatives of Turkey (chairman), Albania, the Great Britain, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Norway, Ukraine, Switzerland and members of the Secretariat.
The agenda of the meeting included issues of cooperation between the OSCE and the CoE in the field of protection of minority rights, tolerance and non-discrimination. The Permanent Representative of Norway, representatives of the HCNM and the ODIHR took the floor at the session.
The Kazakh side participated in the meeting as a member of the OSCE Troika complemented the fruitful cooperation of the two organizations. The participants noted that the Astana Declaration contained provisions on development of equal and partner interaction of the OSCE with other organizations, while the issues of tolerance and non-discrimination were the priorities in the year of Kazakhstan's presidency in the Organization. The proposal of President N.Nazarbayev on development of document "To Tolerance in the New Decade" was discussed at the meeting as well.
Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the OSCE Kairat Abdrakhmanov informed the participants of the sitting about the process of the election campaign in Kazakhstan familiarizing them with the conditions created for foreign observers.
The Kazakh delegation met with Director of the Department of Policy Planning of the Council of Europe P.Switalski and Head of Secretariat on Interparliamentary Co-operation and Election V.Dronov within the meeting as well.