Belarusian FM: Europe admits OSCE needs reforms
"On the one hand, all the heads of state said they are considerably displeased with how things are developing in Europe and the organization itself. It is important that heads of state are not indifferent to the situation and to the OSCE's inability to be a truly effective instrument," said the Foreign Minister of Belarus. "Nevertheless, everyone understands that the OSCE is the only organization that unites all European countries and therefore it is the only platform for working together," he added.
According to Sergei Martynov, various proposals regarding the future development of the organization have been voiced. Belarus has voiced its proposals, too. They touched upon a large number of matters, including security, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, security guarantees for non-nuclear nations, humanitarian matters such as visa regulations, protection of slave trade victims and other things.
The Minister believes the Astana summit is not an ordinary event because the previous summit was held more than ten years ago. Besides, the Astana summit gathered heads of state of most European countries.
Sergei Martynov also said that so far it is premature to speak about any results of the summit. "Although the main part of the summit has ended, it is too early to speak about its results in detail because negotiations on the summit's final document are still going on. No major decisions that have been made jointly have been registered yet," said Sergei Martynov. He added that different countries have different approaches to "curing the diseases" that have evolved in the European space.
The Belarusian Foreign Minister underlined that a large number of proposals and ideas had been voiced. They will be the focus of very serious work in the next few years. "Let's hope that they will result in the adoption of the documents that will allow the OSCE to grow into a full-fledged organization," he said. According to the Foreign Minister, general feelings of the summit participants indicate that the exchange of opinions was needed and was long overdue.