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Home Security Community Issue 1/2015 The OSCE Troika
Security Community Issue 1/2015

The OSCE Troika

Mia Ilić
Each year, a different OSCE participating State chairs the Organization and brings its own perspective to bear on the year’s work. The OSCE Troika was invented at the Helsinki Summit in 1992 to bring an element of continuity to the OSCE’s leadership. It is a format of co-operation between the present, previous and succeeding Chairmanships.
7 July 2015
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How this co-operation takes shape is a matter for each Chairmanship to decide. The Troika can be used for extensive dialogues, occasional consultations or hardly at all. This year, Switzerland, Serbia and Germany are not only holding regular weekly meetings and ad hoc informal meetings but also maintaining daily contact on current issues. How is it going? The three Troika members provide three points of view.

Serbia (current OSCE Chair)

“The Troika is the main consultative body of the OSCE Chairmanship and we are working very closely with our colleagues of the outgoing Chair, Switzerland, and the incoming Chair, Germany.  We believe that this body is very important in helping Serbia steer the OSCE. We conduct Troika meetings regularly, even more often than once a week. We exchange views about the most important issues on the OSCE agenda. It makes the work slightly easier in a very difficult year, when we are facing one of the biggest crises in the Organization’s history. And we hope that this mode of co-operation in the Troika will continue next year, when Germany takes over the Chair.

This year, the Foreign Ministers of the Troika countries decided to also hold Troika meetings on the ministerial level. We already had ministerial meetings in Germany and in Serbia. This is an opportunity for our ministers to have their own discussion on the most pressing issues. In their last meeting in Belgrade in April, they agreed on the nomination of the OSCE representatives to the working groups of Trilateral Contact Group, which is seeking a diplomatic solution to the conflict in and around Ukraine.”

  • Vuk Zugic, Permanent Representative of the Serbia to the OSCE and Chairperson of the Permanent Council

Switzerland (OSCE Chair 2014)

“Last year, it was quite a challenge to use the Troika. For me, the institution was another opportunity to interact with the Ukrainian delegation [Ukraine chaired the OSCE in 2013], but we did not use it as systematically as the Serbian Chairmanship does. We would have liked to use it more, but it was simply not very practical. This year, Serbia has decided to use the Troika extensively. We ended up having only 23 Troika meetings last year, which is almost as many as the Serbian Chairmanship has conducted by May 2015.

Obviously, as the leading member of the Troika, you are the one making decisions. This year, our role has changed and we are now there to advise and to try to mobilize the support of other OSCE participating States for the Chair.

When the consecutive Swiss and Serbian Chairmanships were decided in Vilnius in December 2011, it was agreed that there would be close co-operation between Serbia and Switzerland over the two years. The Troika is only one expression of that close co-operation.”

  • Thomas Greminger, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the  OSCE

Germany (OSCE Chair 2016)

“The Troika format ensures continuity and that is why it is so important. We cannot set up the agenda for only one year; so we need to ensure follow-up and continuity. Within the Troika format we learn what issues will need to be addressed during our Chairmanship period. It is useful because sometimes these issues are not discussed in the Permanent Council meetings and the only way we can get acquainted with them is to be part of Troika.

The Troika is a very intense format. But I think the Serbian Chairmanship is making optimal use of it, and we are doing our best to support the Chair in the exercise of its function. We will reap the real benefits of having been part of the Troika once we take over the helm of the OSCE in 2016.

We have a specific situation this year. From that perspective, it is quite useful that Germany is part of both the Troika and the Normandy group [a negotiation format comprising France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, seeking a resolution of the crisis in and around Ukraine]. This is helping the Chairmanship keep up with the efforts of the Normandy group and providing both sides with the information and input needed for effectively carrying out their work.”

  • Rüdiger Lüdeking, Permanent Representative of Germany to the  OSCE

Article prepared by Mia Ilić, Intern in the Communication and Media Relations Section, OSCE Secretariat.

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The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the OSCE and its participating States.