On 18/19 December 2008, the Head of CORE, Wolfgang Zellner, participated in a round table at the Kazakh MFA in Astana dealing with the preparation of the 2010 Kazakh OSCE Chairmanship. Participants included representatives of the Dutch, Belgian and Spanish as well as the forthcoming Greek and Lithuanian Chairmanships, officials from the OSCE Secretariat and the OSCE Centre in Astana, scientists and leading representatives of the Kazakh MFA, among them the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kairat Sarybay. In a gesture of unusual transparency, Ambassador Askar Tazhiyev from the Kazakh MFA outlined preliminary priorities of the Kazakh OSCE Chairmanship stressing that Kazakhstan supports the mandate of ODIHR and is striving for enhanced participation of Eastern countries in the OSCE’s Election Observation Missions. The very productive meeting, which brought together past and future Chairmanships and thus provided a most welcome element of continuity, was already the second one of this kind.

Contact: Dr Wolfgang Zellner