News Desk: Foreign Policy Press Releases
Waldner: "Austria has great interest in further strengthening relations with Iraq"
State Secretary receives the Governor of Baghdad, accompanied by a delegation of the Austrian-Arab Chamber of Commerce
Spindelegger: "Celebrations for 10 years of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York are an expression of our cultural identity"
Composers, ensembles and musicians provide the musical background to the anniversary year with a series of premières
Waldner: "Strong partners for nuclear disarmament - the United Nations and its Vienna headquarters"
Austrian State Secretary at the opening of UN Disarmament Bureau and the CTBTO ceremony with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
State Secretary Waldner meets Italian and British counterparts
Vienna, 16 February 2012 - Austrian State Secretary Dr. Wolfgang Waldner held bilateral talks with his Italian and British counterparts Staffan de Mistura and Alistair Burt on the sidelines of the third Paris Pact Ministerial Conference in Vienna today.
Spindelegger: „Combating drug trade is a global challenge, to be confronted together"
Vice chancellor Michael Spindelegger opens 3rd Ministerial Conference of the "Paris Pact Initiative" for combating the drug trade from Afghanistan.
Foreign Ministry: Agreement by the Council of Ministers with regard to the appointment of Austrian heads of mission
Vienna, 14 February 2012 - At the request of Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for European and International Affairs Dr. Michael Spindelegger, the Council of Ministers agreed the following nominations of Austrian heads of diplomatic missions today.
Spindelegger: "New Government in Bosnia must quickly resume its course towards Europe"
Application for EU membership is the target for 2012Vienna, 10 February 2012 – Austrian Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger welcomed the official confirmation of a government cabinet in Sarajevo – one and a half years after the general elections of October 2010. "I welcome the approval of a new State-level government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Now it is up to Prime Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda and his team to get the country back on track towards reforms in order to meet the goal of applying for EU membership in 2012."
Spindelegger: "We must not leave the Syrian people alone in their fight for freedom"
Foreign Minister appeals to Russia and China to give up the blockade
State Secretary Waldner meets IAEA Director General Amano
Vienna, 8 February 2012 – „The close cooperation between Austria and the IAEA in Vienna underscores the significance we – and the international community – attribute to this agency", said State Secretary Waldner at a work meeting he had with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano.
Spindelegger commenting on the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation
Vienna, 6 February 2012 – On the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, Austrian Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger put it very clearly: "Female genital mutilation is a severe violation of human rights and must be stopped by all available means. We must double our efforts to eradicate this archaic custom that puts the health of young women and girls at stake."
Austria supports Colombia in its fight against cultivation of drugs
State Secretary Waldner meets head of the UNODC Office in Colombia, Aldo Lale Demoz
Vienna/Bogota, 30 January 2012 - On the occasion of his official tour of Latin American countries, Austrian State Secretary Wolfgang Waldner has held talks on intensifying the cooperation of the two countries in the fight against the cultivation and production of drugs in Colombia. "Colombia is clearly determined to fight drugs; the area of the country under drug cultivation has been cut by half over the past ten years", State Secretary Waldner said following a meeting with the head of the UNODC Office in Colombia, Aldo Lale Demoz.
Austria cooperates closely with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC in projects of alternative cultivation in Antioquia. In this initiative, coca crop farmers are given the possibility to change to alternative products, such as cocoa. "This is a proper option for these farmers, because in the long run they will have a far higher income from cocoa as their cash crop than from coca", Waldner said. "There can be no doubt that projects such as this one are important steps in the right direction in the fight against drugs.
An Austrian project of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna has now made it possible to identify drug cultivation areas by means of satellite images. Using high technology, this project facilitates the recording and measuring of land used for coca cultivation", the State Secretary continued.
Waldner: "As the country where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC has its headquarters, Austria considers itself to be a special ally of this important UN organisation. We give a voice to UNODC also in institutions where it would not otherwise be represented. It is, for example, important to us to include in clear terms the issue of drugs as one of the causes of human rights violations in the EU Human Rights Strategy for Colombia."
Contact:
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European and International Affairs
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Prize for Journalism and Publishing of the Keynes Society awarded at the Austrian Embassy in Berlin
Governor of the Austrian National Bank, Prof. Dr. Ewald Nowotny, on "Current Issues of European Monetary Policy"
Spindelegger: "We intend to make good use of the Austria-Korea Year for deepening our relationships further"
Presentation of the cultural programme on the 120th anniversary of bilateral relations between Korea and Austria
Spindelegger: There can be no relativisation of human rights standards
Austrian Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Impressive proof of Austria's role in international cultural relations
Vienna, 26 January 2012 – Austria took over the chair of nine out of 71 "clusters" of the network of European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) at the beginning of the year.
