OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver, Deputy
Secretary General Semyon Dzakhaev, and Communications
Director Richard Solash visited the office of the Russian
International Affairs Council (RIAC) in Moscow on
Wednesday to finalize logistics for the first seminar of the
OSCE PA’s Helsinki +40 Project, to be hosted by RIAC in the
Russian capital on 25 September. Representing RIAC in the
meeting were Programme Co-ordinator Alexander Eliseev,
Programme Director Ivan Timofeev, Programme Manager
Natalia Evtikhevich, and Media and Government Relations
Manager Anton Tsvetov.
OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver, Deputy Secretary General Semyon Dzakhaev, and Communications Director Richard Solash visited the office of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) in Moscow on Wednesday to finalize logistics for the first seminar of the OSCE PA’s Helsinki +40 Project, to be hosted by RIAC in the Russian capital on 25 September. Representing RIAC in the meeting were Programme Co-ordinator Alexander Eliseev, Programme Director Ivan Timofeev, Programme Manager Natalia Evtikhevich, and Media and Government Relations Manager Anton Tsvetov.
Participants agreed on the final programme for the seminar, which will feature the presentation of papers by Andrey Zagorsky, Head of Department at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) at the Russian Academy of Science, and Javier Ruperez, longtime Spanish diplomat and OSCE expert. The participants in the meeting also discussed the venue for the seminar, press coverage and planning for future Helsinki +40 Project events.
Led by former PA President and current Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Transparency and Reform of the OSCE Joao Soares, the OSCE PA’s Helsinki +40 Project seeks to evaluate the OSCE’s past, present and future in a series of seminars in Russia, the United States, Sweden and Finland. Through the engagement of distinguished experts, politicians and diplomats who have been involved in CSCE/OSCE activities, the Project will provide important food-for-thought materials and recommendations for the OSCE participating States and the Organization as a whole as it pursues reform on the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in August 2015.
Following the RIAC seminar in Moscow later this month, the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) will host the second seminar in mid-November 2014. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) will host the third leg of the Project in early spring 2015, and the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) will host the final Helsinki +40 Colloquium in Helsinki in July 2015 on the eve of the 2015 PA Annual Session.
Source: OSCE PA
