Azerbaijan highly values the willingness of Italy to take the responsibility of chairing the OSCE at this challenging period.

Axar.az reports citing APA.

The Azerbaijani delegation announced about it in its statement in response to Chairperson-in-Office, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano at the OSCE special permanent council meeting in Vienna on Jan.11.

“We extend our full support to its open, transparent and inclusive approach based on joint ownership of all participating States. Our Italian colleagues can count on active and constructive engagement of the Azerbaijani Delegation in implementing the Chairmanship’s agenda,” the Azerbaijani mission said.

The mission further stressed that Italy takes the helm of the Chairmanship against the backdrop of erosion of rules-based European security order accompanied by increased complexity of threats and challenges.

“Existing conflicts deprives millions of people of their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. Their plight can be effectively addressed only through restoration of justice and rule of law on the basis of full respect for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of states affected by the conflicts. Double standards applied by some states impairs the efforts to achieve peaceful solution of the conflicts,” the mission said, adding that Azerbaijan supports the intention of the Italian Chairmanship to promote meaningful dialogue on matters related to the politico-military dimension.

For that aim, the mission added, the Structured Dialogue needs to be continued in line with its mandate identified in the Hamburg Declaration avoiding any premature narrowing of its scope.

“In this context, we encourage the Italian Chairmanship to ensure that risks and challenges emanating from existing conflicts are adequately taken into account in designing the Structured Dialogue process in 2018,” the mission said.