Today, a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna decided to extend the mandate of the OSCE Office in Minsk (OOM) for one year, till 31 December 2010. At the consultations in the run-up to this decision, the Belarusian delegation confirmed its principled consent with the mandate extension.

The decision was followed by a comprehensive analysis on how the OOM was operating and on how its activities corresponded with its mandate.

As we previously highlighted, the outgoing year turned out to be perhaps the most productive in terms of maintaining a constructive approach in our relationship with the Office, largely owing to personal endeavour and engagement of the Head of the OOM, Hans-Johan Schmidt, in 2008–2009. This certainly brought a positive impact to the work of the OSCE Office in Minsk which in general was balanced and carried out within the mandate and in close co-operation with the Belarusian side.

However, there are no objective reasons today for the OSCE to have a field mission in Belarus. Our support of today’s decision in Vienna is a confirmation of our good will, openness and aspiration for constructive work in the following year with Kazakhstan’s Presidency in the OSCE and the European institutions and organisations.

We therefore will continue an active dialogue and work with the Office on major issues of our joint activities in 2010.

The Belarusian side also took a principled decision on the candidature of the new Head of the Office who will be a German representative Benedikt Haller. We hope that the new Head of the Office will ensure continuity and constructive spirit in his work, with sufficient focus on securing a strong correspondence of the Office activities to the aims and parameters of the agreed mandate.

In case the OOM fails to follow its mandate and conducts activities that go beyond the agreed parameters, the Belarusian side reserves the right to terminate the activities of the OSCE Office in Minsk.