OSCE Chairperson calls for constructive co-operation among participating States ahead of Astana Summit

VIENNA, 15 November 2010 - The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister and Secretary of State, Kanat Saudabayev, urged the participating States today to work constructively on a balanced document to be agreed on by consensus at the 1-2 December OSCE Summit in Astana. 

Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council, Saudabayev stressed the importance of the OSCE summit in Astana as the first top-level meeting of the Organization in the past 11 years: "The active participation of all Heads of State or Government through their presence at the Summit would demonstrate their commitment to the OSCE, its principles and the future."

He highlighted the importance of agreement on a final document in Astana.

"First and foremost, we must reaffirm our determination to implement unconditionally and in a sprit of goodwill all the OSCE norms, principles and commitments in all three dimensions of our work," he said. "We also need to clearly identify threats and challenges in the OSCE's area of responsibility, devise an effective plan of action for overcoming them and outline a strategic vision for the development of a Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian community of common and indivisible security and a way of improving the Organization itself."

The final declaration of the Astana Summit and an Action Plan should provide clear impetus to efforts to revive and strengthen the regime of arms control and confidence-building measures, notably through the modernization of the Vienna Document 1999 ensuring military transparency within the OSCE.

Saudabayev said the Summit document should also enhance the OSCE's activities in combating transnational threats and challenges, including those emanating from outside the OSCE region. "The OSCE, under the terms of its mandate and together with other international actors, will be able to step up the necessary assistance to the stabilization in Afghanistan," he said.

Other essential aspects of the Summit final document would include strengthening the potential of the OSCE in early warning, conflict prevention and resolution, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. Saudabayev mentioned the OSCE's efforts to resolve the political crisis in Kyrgyzstan and stressed that the Organization was "ready to continue to provide thorough support to Kyrgyzstan so as to achieve sustainable stability and development. An important step in that regard would be the provision, with Bishkek's consent, of the OSCE's assistance on police matters."

Reducing the risk of conflict through increased attention to inter-ethnic and interreligious tolerance; reaffirming the inviolability of the rule of law and respect for human rights and basic freedoms, including through support of civil society; ensuring economic freedoms, social and environmental responsibility are other important elements of the final declaration, Saudabayev said.

"We need to define more precisely the role of the OSCE in the system of international and regional security structures," said Saudabayev, adding that the operational and institutional potential of the OSCE should be strengthened, and its activities reinforced with a proper legal basis.

Saudabayev noted that negotiations on a balanced document were "by no means easy", particularly with regards to protracted conflicts and the human dimension. He said it was of crucial importance to adopt a strategic and significant document in order to "strengthen security and develop co-operation in the OSCE's area of responsibility and safeguard the future of the Organization itself."

The OSCE Permanent Council is one of the main regular decision-making bodies of the OSCE convening weekly in Vienna to discuss developments in the OSCE area and to make appropriate decisions.