Joao Soares speaking at the Assembly's plenary session on 10 July 2011.BELGRADE, 9 July 2011 – Joao Soares (MP, Portugal) today was named Special Representative on South Caucasus, including for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Petros Efthymiou announced the appointment today in the plenary of the 20th Annual Session after consulting with the delegations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

“Joao Soares has extensive knowledge and personal relationships with important interlocutors in the region. In addition, he has the necessary diplomatic skills to help bring people of all backgrounds together and focus the needed political attention on the continuing conflicts in the Caucasus. I look forward to his work adding a parliamentary component to ongoing discussions,” President Efthymiou said.

“I am honoured to fill this role to help build stronger bridges between parliamentarians in the area, reinforce ongoing discussions throughout the Caucasus, and do what we can to support the OSCE Minsk Group process to bring about lasting peace in the region,” Soares said.

Soares, a former president of the Assembly, has traveled extensively in the region, including to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, in the last eight years.