OSCE Secretary General: Kazakhstan’s presidency might help overcome stagnation in OSCE

12:20, 16 March 2010

MINSK. March 16. KAZINFORM Kazakhstan's presidency in the OSCE in 2010 provides a chance to overcome the stagnation in the organization that is often criticized by Russia and other CIS states. This statement was made by OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, as he answered the questions of the Belarusian State University students on 15 March.

Marc Perrin de Brichambaut reminded that at the beginning of the 1990-s high hopes were put on the OSCE to settle topical issues of the European security. "Back then Mikhail Gorbachev said: "Let Europe be our common home", but the OSCE failed to meet these goals for some historical reasons and started to move in a direction, other than it was expected to," the Secretary General said.

This crisis (when, according to many analysts, the organization dropped security issues and was involved only in cooperation matters) is blamed on the Yugoslavian crisis and Nato expansion to the east. "In these conditions Russia felt deceived: the dialogue within the framework of the OSCE did not live up to Russia's expectations and the European security remained unbalanced," Marc Perrin de Brichambaut said.

"Therefore Kazakhstan's presidency in the organization can offer us a chance to overcome this crisis. After all, due to its geopolitical position Kazakhstan can try to reconcile the positions of all the OSCE member states and help them come up with a new efficient consensus," he said.

Marc Perrin de Brichambaut is convinced that the OSCE will help the European Union find common ground with its eastern neighbors, including Belarus.

"The OSCE is a very flexible, open and constantly updated project. Each of the 56 member states can make its significant contribution to the positive transformation of this organization," the OSCE Secretary General concluded, BelTA reports.

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