OSCE Chairman heading to Georgia with EU envoy to seek ceasefire

HELSINKI, 10 August 2008 - The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, will travel to Tbilisi today with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

The Ministers will then travel from Tbilisi to Moscow. Meetings with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, among others, are foreseen.

The Chairman-in-Office will work toward an immediate ceasefire and try to pave the way for humanitarian action, possibly with the help of the OSCE Mission to Georgia.

The Special Envoy of the Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, is already in Tbilisi, working in close co-operation with the European Union and other international actors.