OSCE-Japan Conference focuses on security challenges

TOKYO, 10 June 2009 - Participants in an OSCE-Japan conference starting in Tokyo today discussed how the 56 OSCE participating States and its Asian Partners for Co-operation can best co-operate to address global security challenges.

The two-day meeting, organized jointly by the OSCE and Japan's Foreign Ministry, looks at how the countries can share knowledge and experiences to promote security. The Asian Partners are: Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Afghanistan and Mongolia. The Organization also has six Mediterranean partner countries.

In his welcome address, Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone noted that the OSCE "is a pioneer that has been engaged in comprehensive security, encompassing the politico-military, economic and environmental and human dimensions of security", adding that Asia can learn lessons from European post-war history.

"Today's security of the OSCE is not just from Vancouver to Vladivostok anymore, but is indivisible from security in the entire world," he said.

Theodore Kotsonis, Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office for the Asian Partners for Co-operation, said Greece had made enhancing co-operation with the OSCE Partner countries a priority, to which his own appointment by the Chairperson, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, was testimony.

"In today's globalized and interdependent world, security in the OSCE is even more evidently closely linked with the broader context of world security," he said, adding this was a reason why the Greek Chairmanship kept engagement with Afghanistan high on the OSCE agenda. "The deployment by the OSCE of an election support team to Afghanistan for the upcoming elections embodies the practical spirit of our partnership."

He also said that last month's nuclear test by North Korea represented a "disturbing threat to regional and global stability".

Ambassador Antti Turunen of Finland, who chairs the Asian Contact Group, highlighted the interdependence between the OSCE and Asian Partner countries. "We have much to learn from each other and so much more to gain from close co-operation," he said. "The OSCE experience in confidence-building could be useful in consolidating the security situation and looking for ways to tackle security problems in Northeast Asia."

OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut said the conference came at a fitting time because it comes at a time with the Organization's gravity is shifting toward Asia.

"The 2010 Chairmanship by Kazakhstan could not come at a better time, and it will bring a reinforced Asian perspective to the security dialogue and joint efforts. This new Asian sensitivity acts also as a reminder that OSCE States face a complex array of external threats, often driven by non-state actors that have an impact both East and West of Vienna," he said, adding that he was referring to "security questions that include the challenge of instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan."