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The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and free and fair elections. It employs around 3,460 people, mostly in its field operations but also in its secretariat in Vienna, Austria, and its institutions. It has observer status at the United Nations.
Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is an unrecognised state internationally considered to be part of Moldova. Transnistria controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester river and the Moldovan–Ukrainian border, as well as some land on the other side of the river's bank. Its capital and largest city is Tiraspol. Transnistria has been recognised only by three other unrecognised or partially recognised breakaway states: Abkhazia, Artsakh, and South Ossetia. Transnistria is officially designated by the Republic of Moldova as the Administrative-Territorial Units of the Left Bank of the Dniester or as Stînga Nistrului. In March 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution that defines the territory as under military occupation by Russia.
The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Law enforcement in Transnistria is administered by the region's own police force. Transnistria functions as a presidential republic, with its own government, parliament, military, paramilitary and police (militsiya) force, constitution, currency, postal system and stamps, flag, national anthem, and coat of arms.
Burton Lynn Pascoe served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations at the UN Department of Political Affairs from 2007 to June 2012, where he oversaw the UN's diplomatic efforts to prevent and mitigate conflict around the globe.
Lawrence E. Butler was the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia from 2002 to 2005.
Louis F. O’Neill is an American diplomat and attorney. An expert on Russia/Eurasia conflicts and security, he served as Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Ambassador and Head of Mission to Moldova (2006–2008). O’Neill worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff (2005–2006), and as Special Assistant for Russian Affairs to Secretary of State Colin Powell (2004–2005) when O’Neill was a non-political, non-partisan White House Fellow.
Richard Boyce Norland is an American diplomat. He has served as the United States Ambassador to Libya.
Natalia Gherman is a Moldovan politician who has been serving as executive director of the United Nations' Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate since 2023.
The United States Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe represents the United States government in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Currently, Michael R. Carpenter represents the United States at the OSCE and holds the title of ambassador.
Ian Crawford Kelly is an American retired Foreign Service Officer and Ambassador (ret.) currently serving as the Ambassador in Residence at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is an American former statesman and senior foreign service officer who last served as the United States Ambassador to Georgia, from 2015 to 2018. He previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from 2010 to 2013. Prior to his ambassadorship, Kelly held a variety of high-level roles at the U.S. State Department, including serving as the department spokesman under Secretary Hillary Clinton.
John James Maresca is an Italian-American diplomat, business leader, and educator. Maresca has held a number of posts in the US government including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and US Ambassador. He has also founded, led, and contributed to a number of prominent NGOs and private sector companies. He served as Rector of the United Nations mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) in Costa Rica until February, 2013.
Eugeniu Știrbu is a politician from Moldova.
Ilie Cazac is a former Moldovan tax inspector and political prisoner. He was arrested by representatives of the unrecognized Transnistria in March 2010, being accused of high treason and espionage on behalf of Moldova. In February 2011, a court in Transnistria sentenced him to 14 years in prison. Among the institutions involved in his release in October 2011 were the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, World Organization Against Torture, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Court of Human Rights.
Kelly Ann Keiderling-Franz is an American diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Uruguay from 2016 to 2019 and has served as Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova since 2022.
Catherine M. Croft is a United States Department of State official who has served as a special advisor for Ukraine both in the State Department and on the United States National Security Council. Croft has been scheduled to testify in closed-door hearings before the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees in October 2019.
Michael Scanlan is a United States diplomat.
Transnistria and the United States do not have official diplomatic relations as the United States is among the vast majority of political entities that does not recognize Transnistria as a sovereign nation and instead recognizes the region of Transnistria as part of Moldova.
Michael R. Carpenter is an American diplomat serving as United States ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the Biden administration.
The Yushchenko Plan, also referred to as the Ukrainian Plan, was a unsuccessful 2005 plan developed by then-President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Petro Poroshenko in an effort to bring an end to the Transnistria conflict by peaceful means with the support of Moldova and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
