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The Contact Group is the name for an informal grouping of influential countries that have a significant interest in policy developments in the Balkans. The Contact Group is composed of United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. It was first created in response to the war and the crisis in Bosnia in the early 1990s. The Contact Group includes four of the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council and the countries that contribute the most in troops and assistance to peacebuilding efforts in the Balkans. Representatives of the EU Council, EU Presidency, European Commission and NATO generally attend Contact Group meetings. Motto: none Anthem(s): Intermeco Capital Sarajevo Largest city Sarajevo Official language(s) Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Government Republic - Presidency members Haris Silajdžić1 (Bosniak) Nebojša Radmanović (Serb) Željko Komšić (Croat) - Chairman of the Council of Ministers Adnan Terzić Independence From Yugoslavia - Recognized 6 April 1992 Area - Total...
A session of the Security Council in progress The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful organ of the United Nations. ...
NATO 2002 Summit in Prague The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation[1] (NATO), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for collective security established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, DC, on 4 April 1949. ...
The Contact Group has taken a major interest in the UN-led process to determine the future political status of Kosovo (i.e., whether it should be independent or remain a part of Serbia). The Contact Group meets regularly with UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, who has been charged with running the future status process. For other uses of the name Kosovo, see Kosovo (disambiguation). ...
President Martti Ahtisaari December 6th 2004 Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (born June 23, 1937) is a former President of Finland (1994–2000) and UN diplomat, noted for his international peace work. ...
The Contact Group has no Secretariat or permanent staff -- it is simply an informal grouping of countries that meets regularly at various levels to coordinate international policy initiatives in southeast Europe. Contact Group public statements, often negotiated to painstaking detail within the group, are considered to be significant statements of the international community's policy and intentions in the region. The Contact Group usually meets at the level of Balkans director (i.e., the highest-ranking diplomats in charge of the Balkans in each foreign ministry). Occasionally, however, the Contact Group meets at the level of Political Director or even Foreign Minister.
On July 24, 2006, Contact Group representatives observed the first high-level meeting between the prime ministers and presidents of Kosovo and Serbia to discuss Kosovo's future status. A Contact Group statement issued after the meeting praised Kosovo for demonstrating flexibility in the technical talks underway in the Kosovo future status process, but urged Serbia to demonstrate more flexibility than it had so far.
Contact Group foreign ministers met in New York City on September 20, 2006, in New York City on the margins of the UN General Assembly. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chaired the meeting. After the meeting, the Contact Group issued a press statement restating the goal of achieving a negotiated settlement in the course of 2006. Condoleezza Rice (born November 14, 1954). ...
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