COPENHAGEN, 21 November 2012 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Riccardo Migliori today welcomed the parliament of Mongolia as the newest country to join the Assembly.

"I warmly congratulate you on Mongolia's accession to becoming the 57th State of the OSCE," Migliori wrote in a letter to Speaker Zandaakhuu Enkhbold of the Mongolian Parliament. "We also very much look forward to working with Mongolia, as we continue to address the many transnational security challenges across the OSCE PA region."

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore, today announced that Mongolia has acceded to the OSCE, which allows the country's parliament full voting membership in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

President Migliori has expressed an interest in visiting Ulaanbaatar in early 2013 to discuss how the parliament can play a more active role in the Assembly through the various meetings and election observation missions led by parliamentarians throughout the year.

The Bureau of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will decide in Dublin on 5 December how many seats Mongolia will receive in the plenary of the Assembly, which currently has 320 voting members from 55 participating States.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is comprised of 320 parliamentarians from 56 countries spanning, Europe, Central Asia and North America. The Assembly provides a forum for parliamentary diplomacy, monitors elections, and strengthens international co-operation to uphold commitments on political, security, economic, environmental and human rights issues.