Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has welcomed the beginning of Italy's chairmanship of the OSCE.

"I wish good luck to my good friend Angelino Alfano [Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano] as new OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2018," the minister wrote in his microblog on Twitter on Tuesday.

He thanked Austria's chairmanship in 2017 for efforts to protect order in Europe.

"We also welcome Slovakia as a new member of the OSCE Troika," Klimkin added.

As reported, on January 1, 2018, Italy took over OSCE chairmanship, and Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano became the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.

In 2017, the post of OSCE chairman was held by the then Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.