OSCE to explore common ground on current and future security challenges

VIENNA, 7 April, 2017 – Fostering a better understanding of threat perceptions is the focus of discussions among senior officials from capitals and ambassadors of the participating States to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna (Kahlenberg) today.

The discussions mark the beginning of the OSCE Structured Dialogue on current and future challenges and risks, a process launched by Foreign Ministers in their Declaration on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the OSCE Arms Control Framework at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg last December. The Structured Dialogue will address challenges in the wider politico-military sphere, explore possibilities of overcoming divergences and reversing the negative developments that have marked European security in the past years.

Against these developments Hamburg created “a real opportunity”, Ambassador Eberhard Pohl, Chairperson of the Informal Working Group on Structured Dialogue, stressed at the meeting, adding that transparency, inclusiveness and respect will be guiding principles in this process. “Starting with an exchange on threat perceptions, we embark today on a highly relevant process. I hope that our discussions will foster greater mutual understanding and an environment conducive to reinvigorating co-operative security in Europe.”

Ambassador Christian Strohal, Special Representative of the Austrian OSCE Chairmanship and its Co-ordinator on the Structured Dialogue, noted: “We are facing a severe security crisis throughout Europe. Trust has eroded considerably, both the trust among states and the trust of our citizens in the organizations whose mandate it is to ensure a stable and secure environment. Together, we must counter this development.” He expressed his confidence that “today’s launch of the Structured Dialogue about our security challenges can contribute to more transparency, more predictability and more co-operation.”

The next meetings of the Structured Dialogue will address, among other things, recent developments in military doctrines and trends in military force postures. They complement the ongoing work of the OSCE on wider issues of co-operation in the politico-military field, as well as on economic, environmental and human rights issues.