Thank you, Madame Chairperson, for your update on the status of discussions on the return of the Assistance Group to its office in Chechnya.

In exactly one week, our ministers will be meeting here to consider -- and speak out on -- what we have and have not accomplished since Istanbul.

One of the foremost questions on their minds will be whether or not the AG is indeed on the ground and at work in Chechnya.

The Russian government has provided repeated assurances -- not only to the OSCE as an organization, but also to many of our ministers and heads of state individually -- that the OSCE Assistance Group will be granted a continuous presence on the ground in Chechnya, operating under its original 1995 mandate.

Now is the time for the Russian authorities to turn those assurances into reality.

Thank you, Madame Chairperson.