OSCE trains officials from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on conflict prevention

Today the OSCE Office in Tajikistan jointly with the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and in close co-operation with the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) completed a four-day training course on conflict prevention. The course involved twenty-one participants from the Tajikistan Presidential Staff, Tajik Foreign Ministry, Tajik Justice Ministry and Tajik Border Troops, alongside counterparts of the Kyrgyz Presidential Staff, Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry, Kyrgyz Government’ Secretariat on border issues and Kyrgyz Border Troops. The course presented international best practices and case studies from countries which experienced similar problems in the past. It was also an opportunity to discuss adapting the model of international co-operation between local authorities on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border as well as to identify common types and forms of confidence-building measures in protecting state borders. The training was conducted by Major General Istvan Samu, former Deputy Head of Hungarian Border Guard; Colonel Janos Jenei, former Head of Administration of Hungarian Border Guard; and Gorancho Stojkovski, Border Management Advisor from the Border Management Unit of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan. During the graduation ceremony, Ambassador Markus Mueller, the Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan said: “OSCE provides a platform for dialogue and co-operation between equal partners, and at the same time the opportunity for the government agencies’ representatives from both countries to spend a couple days outside of regular working environment and develop informal and formal relations as a good way of building confidence.”