Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL ), will lead a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lithuania and Belarus June 26 to July 3, 2009. The delegation will be in Sarajevo on June 27 and 28 and will hold a series of meetings with government leaders and civil society representatives in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina – focusing on international cooperation and supporting the reforms to allow Bosnia to join the European Union and NATO. On Sunday, June 28, the Congressional delegation in BiH led by Senator Cardin and joined by the U.S. Ambassador to BiH, Charles English, will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. at Hotel Europe, Vladislava Skarića 5, 71000 Sarajevo. All media representatives are invited to attend the conference. We kindly ask you to arrive at Hotel Europe no later than 3:10 p.m. For all additional information, please contact Office of Public Affairs Sarajevo at 033/619-592 or 061/138-985. The stop in Minsk, Belarus, will mark the highest level Congressional delegation to the authoritarian country in more than a decade. The delegation will attend the 18th Annual Session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Vilnius, focusing on the theme ‘ The OSCE: Addressing New Security Challenges.’ Members will debate and vote on a range of issues including security in Afghanistan, the economic crisis, climate change, energy, water, and human rights and democratic development. The resolutions passed become the final Vilnius Declaration – helping to steer the direction of the OSCE.