Eurasian security challenges discussed at OSCE Centre-supported conference in Almaty
ALMATY, 3 October 2013 – More than 70 government officials, academics, diplomats and representatives of international and non-governmental organizations discussed how OSCE can contribute to the implementation of the concept of the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security community at a conference in Almaty today.
The conference was co-organized by the OSCE Centre in Astana, the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President together with Embassies of Ukraine and Switzerland.
Participants included high-level officials from the Government of Kazakhstan, renowned think-tanks and academic institutions in the Central Asian region, Eastern and Western Europe, international experts from 12 countries, and high-level OSCE officials.
At the event, speakers proposed ways to address various security challenges, most notably stemming from and around Afghanistan while evaluating and exploring new aspects of co-operation and ways for enhancing synergy to achieve common interests of stability and security.
“The ongoing discussions in the expert community to clearly define the format of the security community are very important to promote the implementation of the Astana Commemorative Declaration by the current and future OSCE Chairmanships in the context of establishing the indivisible Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security community,” said Serzhan Abdykarimov, Chair of the Foreign Policy Analysis and Forecasting Committee at Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry.
Bulat Sultanov, Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies, said: “Threats to security in Central Asia are stemming from within the region, rather than from outside. Thus, in-depth consideration of social, economic and political processes in Central Asia is needed. Establishing an analysis and forecasting centre under the OSCE aegis on monitoring the situation in Central Asia could serve to this end.”
Head of OSCE Centre in Astana, Ambassador Natalia Zarudna, expressed hope that the conference would contribute to establishing an OSCE-wide network of academic institutions and think-tanks to ensure broader exchange of opinions and experiences in order to enhance the OSCE role in the context of the Helsinki+40 process.
The Helsinki+40 process was launched to provide strong and continuous political impetus to advancing work towards a security community, as the OSCE approaches 2015, the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act.
A set of recommendations was elaborated to contribute from the academic perspective to the current and future Chairmanships’ efforts on streamlining the Helsiniki+40 process. A compilation of the conference presentations will be published and widely distributed, including among OSCE institutions and participating States.
The OSCE Secretariat was represented by Thomas Wuchte, Head of the Action against Terrorism Unit from the Transnational Threats Department.