Slovakia’s OSCE Chairmanship to work towards boosting multilateralism and conflict prevention, State Secretary Lukáš Parízek tells Permanent Council

VIENNA, 19 July 2018 – Slovakia’s OSCE Chairmanship next year will pursue strategies that boost multilateralism, promote conflict prevention and focus on addressing the needs of people, said the country’s Foreign and European Affairs State Secretary Lukáš Parízek in Vienna today, as he addressed the Permanent Council on the incoming Chairmanship’s priority areas.

He said that in order to address the current challenges to the international arena and its rule-based order, the OSCE’s participating States have to strengthen the international system founded on multilateral co-operation and good global governance.

“We need to start using tools from our multilateral toolbox properly. Our multilateral institutions were built for people. Not for politicians. Not for diplomats. But people.If we lose sight of that, we lose sight of our overall mission,” said Parízek.  

Dialogue is at the core of multilateralism, he added, and the OSCE is a platform for dialogue. “Dialogue is the most basic, and yet the most powerful instrument we have. Frankly, we need to dust it down, and start using it again.”

The Structured Dialogue on the current and future challenges and risks to security in the OSCE area, he said, is a possible way forward to foster a greater understanding of threat perception and co-operation.

Slovakia will also support the implementation of existing confidence- and security-building measures, promote increased military-to-military contacts and support effective and accountable security sectors, said Parízek. It will work closely with respective Forum for Security Co-operation Chairmanships.

On the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area, he said Slovakia will strive to support the existing negotiating formats.

“A dialogue leading to a political solution is what we need and what we will support. Our Chairmanship will be open to collaboration with all parties, and I am counting on your support,” he urged.

Turning to the crisis in and around Ukraine, he recalled a recent trip to the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, where he witnessed “the consequences of political inaction and their impact on those who have nothing to do with the conflict, nor with the politics behind it.”

Calling for a stop to the daily threats, intimidation and restrictions to the freedom of movement that monitors from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine face, he said the Slovakian Chairmanship will support the work of the Mission, as well as the political process of the Trilateral Contact Group and the Normandy Format in reaching a peaceful solution to the crisis.

In other areas of the OSCE’s work, Parízek noted Slovakia’s intention to promote a comprehensive approach to preventing violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism, enhancing cyber security, and in the economic and environmental dimension: greater economic connectivity, protecting energy networks from natural and man-made disasters, good governance, and sustainable water management.

Regarding the human dimension, he said that Slovakia is aware of the current challenges in this area.

“We call on participating States to defend the third dimension and agree on a long-term sustainable solution that will allow us to focus on improving the implementation of our human dimension commitments,” he said.

National minorities, Roma and Sinti issues, and the safety of journalists were areas the State Secretary mentioned as of particular importance to Slovakia in the human dimension.

Concluding, Parízek reminded delegations that an OSCE Chairmanship can assist and facilitate, mediate and moderate, support and defend, but it cannot replace the political will of the participating States.

“We can have different opinions, and we can each offer our own views. But our goal is to find common solutions. Through dialogue. In a new departure that includes all of us.”