In his closing remarks at the 27th OSCE Ministerial Council, the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama made a review of the work Albania did during its 2020 OSCE Chair. “Albania had to take much more responsibility than anyone else coming before us,” –said Rama, considering the many OSCE internal crisis that Albania’s 2020 Chair had to face during a COVID-19 global pandemic. Following the results of leading OSCE’s Chair, Rama said that the next goal for Albania will be that of entering the United Nations Security Council. Albania’s Chair will be remembered especially for the proposal it made to Belarus to facilitate a dialogue between the government and the opposition after the series of political demonstrations and protests hit the country after the 2020 Presidential Election. The request though wasn’t accepted by Lukashenko’s government.
Other internal crisis was the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two OSCE countries, and the debates regarding the Ukraine budget. The Ministerial approves also the new senior OSCE officials. The Foreign Minister of
Germany Heiko Maas, considered the new leading team of OSCE as not only high qualified, but also for the first time in the history of the OSCE it will be a team that will fulfil the gender and geographical equality. The OSCE Chair is held for one calendar year by the OSCE participating State designated as such by a decision of the Ministerial Council. The function of the Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) is exercised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of that State. Sweden will take over OSCE 2021 Chairmanship.
