Today marks the start of the 28th OSCE Ministerial Council, which this year takes place in Stockholm, Sweden, the country currently holding the OSCE Chairmanship in the person of the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ann Linde.

San Marino delegation, led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Luca Beccari, accompanied by San Marino Ambassador to the OSCE Elena Molaroni and some diplomatic officials, is also actively participating in the Council. Minister Beccari has delivered his speech this afternoon. In his speech, Minister Beccari highlighted the Republic's concern about the most recent global challenges, including the worsening pandemic wave, growing political tensions, old and new conflicts, alarming environmental disasters, and the erosion of human rights and democratic institutions.

Minister Beccari said that it is vital that the decisions we take together are based on a genuine and concrete willingness to cooperate and underlined the absolute necessity of multilateral action to meet the above challenges. He also said that our success will be measured not by the number of decisions we take, but by their scope and relevance.

This important international occasion also facilitated dialogue with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the countries participating in the Ministerial Council. This morning, Minister Beccari met with Jakub Kulhanek, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, the country that will take over the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2022. The two Ministers mainly discussed the progress of the Association Agreement with the European Union and cooperation within the European framework.

In the morning, a bilateral meeting was also held with the Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anze Logar. Following the visit to San Marino by H.E. Alojz Kovšca, President of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia and official speaker at the last ceremony of investiture of the Captains Regent, Minister Logar addressed the main issues of bilateral relations and expressed the intention to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries next year. The Slovenian Minister also reiterated his country’s willingness to cooperate within the EUSAIR framework, particularly on environmental and mobility issues.

Subsequently, San Marino delegation met the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolaos Dendias, with whom a Memorandum of Understanding was signed. This Memorandum aims at strengthening cooperation between the two countries in the political, economic and cultural fields through regular consultation, and, in this regard, it was proposed to organise an official visit as early as next year. The willingness to cooperate was also expressed in order to rapidly conclude the Association Agreement with the European Union.

In the afternoon, the delegation met with Karen Donfried, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs of the US government, with whom collaboration in the UN framework was mainly discussed. Bilateral relations, including cooperation in the economic and financial sector and possible agreements on social security and double taxation (DTAs), were also fruitfully discussed.

After Minister Beccari's speech in the plenary session, the most important moment in the afternoon was the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, with whom the agreement on the abolition of visas was signed. This testifies to the already excellent relations between the two countries and to the mutual desire to follow up on the cooperation issues discussed during the recent visit to Moscow.

A bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro Djordje Radulovic is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

San Marino, 2 December 2021