Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 31 October (BelTA) – Participants of the Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting believe that Minsk is an important negotiating platform to resolve international conflicts, BelTA has learned.

According to them, Minsk has turned into a venue to discuss conflict resolution not only in Nagorno-Karabakh and the east of Ukraine, but also between Serbia and Kosovo. The talks between representatives of Belgrade and Pristina that were held in Minsk on 31 October were called the start of a new Minsk process.

During the meeting, parties also discussed some aspects of implementation of the Minsk agreements, including the existing format of talks to resolve the conflict in the east of Ukraine.

The Munich Security Conference is an annual event held since 1963. The event was initially meant as a dialogue between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States on security policy. It later attracted the attention of political and military circles of other countries. At present the Munich Security Conference is considered one of the most important independent forums for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers. The list of attendees includes high-ranking politicians, heads of state from Europe, the United States, and Asia, representatives of defense agencies, NATO and the OSCE, security experts, representatives of military industry concerns, leading journalists. Every year more and more business people show interest in the forum.

The first MSC Core Group Meeting was held in 2009. Meetings are held in the format of an exclusive high-level dialogue with the involvement of a wide range of participants. They are a continuation of the Munich Security Conference and traditionally focus on the security in the region they are held in. The last MSC Core Group Meeting took place in Washington on 8 May 2017. The meetings were also held in Moscow, Beijing, Doha, New Delhi, Vienna, Tehran, and Addis Ababa.