Madam President,

First of all, let me thank you for organizing today's meeting. Ukraine supports its objectives, namely to further strengthen cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional arrangements in conflict prevention, mediation, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Your presence in New York, Madam President, attests to the importance that your country attaches to this issue.

I also wish to thank the Secretary-General as well as honourable representatives of regional and sub-regional organizations for their respective insights.

While Ukraine aligns itself with the statement made on behalf of the European Union, I would like to make a few comments my national capacity.

As a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 2000-2001, Ukraine paid particular attention to the strengthening of interaction between the Council and regional organizations based on the principles of effective and clear division of labour, complementarily, added value, comparative advantages and regional ownership.

We welcome the progress achieved since then in ensuring closer and more operational cooperation. Here the most recent re-hatting experience in Mali comes to mind.

Yet, the goal of ensuring coherence, synergy and collective effectiveness of the joint efforts remains as relevant as ever. That is why we fully support today’s comprehensive Presidential statement aimed at achieving  this purpose.

Madam President,

As is rightly pointed out in the Concept Note, one of the regional organizations, which, along with the African Union, enjoys the most established interaction with the Security Council, is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Since Ukraine has the honour to Chair the OSCE in 2013, let me briefly outline some suggestions on how to further advance UN-OSCE partnership. For the sake of time I will confine myself to general remarks, while the full text of the statement will be uploaded to my Mission’s web page.

As was emphasized by OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara before this Council in May, the OSCE is a strong partner of the United Nations in promoting international peace and security in its vast area.

With a comprehensive approach to security and in view of its geographical scope stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, the OSCE enjoys a particular place among all other regional organizations under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter.

In March 2006 the OSCE Permanent Council adopted a Declaration on Cooperation with the United Nations, welcoming Security Council resolution 1631 and declaring its readiness to further reinforce cooperation with the UN.

Consequently, the OSCE has boosted its interaction with the United Nations in all three dimensions (the politico-military; the economic and environmental; and the human), with particular attention to addressing post-conflict challenges, humanitarian needs and transnational threats.

Madam President,

As security challenges continue to evolve, the nature of UN-OSCE collaboration must evolve as well, becoming more pragmatic and action-oriented. We should clearly identify areas where the two organizations can most effectively work together or in parallel – but not in competition – guided by the needs and priorities of its member states.

In our view, the OSCE should continue to engage closely on mediation with the UN and its Friends of Mediation, particularly as the OSCE further bolsters its own mediation and mediation-support capacity through various measures.

The OSCE must remain committed to supporting the UN by helping to create more synergies in key regions of common attention. In particular, security, political and economic transition in Afghanistanas well as the withdrawal of International Security Forces in 2014 will continue to have security implications for the OSCE area.

Progress in finding sustainable long-term solution to the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area is on top of the Ukrainian Chairmanship agenda. We highly appreciate the UN input to solving security and humanitarian issues in the area of conflict in Georgia within the framework of the Geneva International Discussions.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo is a key component of the UNMIK framework, providing valuable experience and expertise in institution-building and promoting human rights and engaging actively with UNHCR, UNDP and other international organizations.

The OSCE devotes particular attention to a broad range of transnational threats. This includes very close co-operation with the UN Counterterrorism Strategy, as well as interaction on Drugs, Borders and WMD Non-proliferation. Therefore, we see particular merit in deepening cooperation with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, the Security Council Committee 1540 and the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes. An updated Joint Action Plan for 2013-2014 with the latter entered into force this April.

In the area of policing, the OSCE developed strong ties with the DPKO’s Police Division and is actively cooperating in the development of the new UN Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping. Let me recall that this March Ukraine hosted one of the dedicated regional seminars.

The fight against trafficking in human beings remains one of the key issues addressed by the OSCE under the Ukrainian Chairmanship. In June, the Chairmanship held in Kyiv a high-level international conference on combating trafficking in human beings.

Other priorities of the Ukrainian Chairmanship in human dimension include strengthening freedom of media. It is worth noting that the OSCE Representative on the Freedom of Media has been engaged in drafting the UN Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists, which is quite telling in the light of the Council’s open debate on this very issue last month. UN and OSCE continuously share relevant information in this field.

Madam President,

This list of priority areas of the UN-OSCE collaboration is not exhaustive, and Ukrainian Chairmanship will exert every effort to advance this bilateral interaction as comprehensively and effectively as possible.

In closing, let me reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to taking forward cooperation between the UN and its regional and sub-regional partners.

Thank you.