Need to fully exploit OSCE’s potential stressed at OSCE Annual Security Review Conference

VIENNA 26 June 2018 – High-level representatives of the 57 OSCE participating States,  Partners for Co-operation and partnering organizations convened in Vienna today for deep and wide-ranging discussions on current security threats and challenges for Europe and the OSCE’s role in addressing them. The three-day Annual Security Review Conference is being hosted by the Italian OSCE Chairmanship under the motto “Dialogue, ownership and responsibility.”

“The OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organization. This is why we need to fully exploit its potential, with a renewed sense of commitment and collective ownership,” said Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Guglielmo Picchi, opening the conference.

“We have come together at a moment when our security order is in an intense state of flux. Despite different views on how we ended up in this dangerously unstable situation, we have a common interest in finding a way out,” said OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger. “We need more dialogue and other trust-building steps, including more opportunities like the ASRC for interaction between the military and diplomatic communities.”

United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary General Rosemary DiCarlo, who addressed the opening session via video, said that the OSCE and its participating States have a central role to play in realizing the UN Secretary-General’s vision of prevention focused on building and sustaining peaceful, equitable and resilient societies.  “The OSCE’s conflict resolution and confidence-building mechanisms stand as palpable evidence of how we can come together to promote long-term stability and sustainable development,” she said.

Topics being discussed during the conference include: conflict and crisis situations in the OSCE area; lessons learned and the way ahead in addressing the conflict cycle; conventional arms control and confidence- and security-building measures; challenges and opportunities arising from migration; and current and future trends regarding transnational threats.

A special session this morning was devoted to the crisis in and around Ukraine, one of the main security challenges in the OSCE area.

“A solution to the crisis in and around Ukraine is among the priorities of the Italian Chairmanship. A new commitment to improve the situation is needed, considering some non-encouraging reports from the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. All parties need to take full responsibility to respect the ceasefire and to relaunch the political process within the Trilateral Contact Group and the Normandy Format,” Deputy Minister Picchi stated.

Another special session tomorrow will focus on the Structured Dialogue, a process launched by OSCE participating States last year to explore new ways of addressing politico-military challenges and reversing the negative trends in the European security architecture.