The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, will visit Moldova and Ukraine from 31 May to 2 June, according to the OSCE web site.
In Moldova, the Chairman-in-Office will meet President Vladimir Voronin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Andrei Stratan, the Minister for Reintegration Vasile Sova, as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations and the OSCE Mission in Moldova. He will also visit a laboratory of the joint NATO-OSCE Pesticide Destruction Project in Chisinau and the joint Peacekeeping Headquarters in Bendery.
Minister De Gucht will meet Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov in Tiraspol on 1 June, and later in the day travel to the Cuciurgan border crossing point for talks with his Moldovan and Ukrainian counterparts.
Media members are invited to attend a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan at 17.45 on 31 May at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chisinau.
In Ukraine, the Chairman-in-Office will visit Odesa and Kyiv and meet President Viktor Yushchenko, Foreign Minister Boris Tarasiuk, acting Head of the National Security and Defence Council Volodymyr Gorbulin, as well as staff at the Office of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.
A news conference for media representatives is scheduled for 15.45 on 2 June at the Presidentail Secretariat in Kyiv.
