First of all let me express my gratitude to the CiO for its efforts in promoting youth participation in our Organization, for gathering us here today and, of course, for proposing me as co-ordinator of this Group of Friends. I am honoured and will do my best to support you in facilitating a common understanding on this issue.
And thanks to you dear colleagues, friends, for your keen interest in Youth, a cause in which I strongly believe, convinced as I am that our younger generations can prove to be a key partner in building a true security community in our region as was envisaged in Astana in 2010. Youth was already mentioned in Helsinki Final Act and in the Decision adopted in Madrid in 2007 on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination, our Ministers acknowledged the importance of the role youth can play in fostering mutual respect and understanding.
Like many of you, I was in Helsinki last July for the Commemoration of Helsinki Final Act and I think that to many of those present, and certainly for me, the intervention by Johanna Nyman, European Youth Forum President, was one of the highlights. “Our generation is in many ways an untapped resource”, she said. Among friends, including some many young and talented friends, here at the OSCE, under the guidance of the Swiss and Serbian consecutive Chairmanships, we are starting to untap this potential, as we saw last year in Basel and more recently in areas such as prevention of radicalization, as was discussed in Belgrade last week by our Youth Ambassadors, or the struggle to break the connection between drugs and youth, as will be discussed in he next two days here in Vienna.
Let me also very briefly inform you about a recently established group in whose Steering Team I will be also taking part: The Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education Partnership, the aim of which is to promote knowledge of this fundamental security issue among the young generation, so that you, the young, can better contribute to shape the international discussions on this issue.
Please count on me and my team in order to continue building bridges within the OSCE among generations.
Thank you very much.