Mediterranean perspective in focus at OSCE meeting on future of European security

VALLETTA, 14 October 2010 - By working together, the OSCE participating States and their Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation are consolidating security in the region, the OSCE Permanent Council Chairperson, Kazakhstan's Ambassador, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, told participants in the 2010 OSCE Mediterranean Conference today. 

Abdrakhmanov, speaking at the opening of the two-day meeting, said OSCE projects that involved the Mediterranean Partners - Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia - such as participation in a workshop on travel document security, helped strengthen the partnership. Next year, the OSCE will sponsor young diplomats from Partner countries to work in OSCE structures, and consultations are underway for a participatory assessment of environment and security matters in the Southern Mediterranean region.

"By sharing our knowledge and working together, we realize one of the primary objectives of our Partnership, which is to expand and consolidate the area of our common security," said Abdrakhmanov, whose country holds the 2010 OSCE Chairmanship.

Topics to be discussed at the meeting include OSCE experiences in confidence- and security-building measures, fostering security and stability by dealing with economic and environmental challenges, and tolerance and non-discrimination.

Tonio Borg, Malta's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, said the OSCE region faced increasingly diverse and complex challenges, many of which are transnational or transregional.

"These include the trafficking in arms, drugs and human beings, illegal migration, terrorism, intolerance, the lack of good governance, poverty and inequality and security risks arising from energy shortages or inadequate access to water," he said. "Some of these challenges, previously viewed almost exclusively in a humanitarian context, are increasingly recognized as having a direct effect on regional and sub-regional security and can lead to instability or even conflict."

Renatas Norkus, the Ambassador to the OSCE of Lithuania, Chairperson of the Mediterranean Contact Group, which will take over the OSCE Chairmanship in 2011, said that modern security challenges that threaten stability and prosperity did not recognize borders, nationalities or religions. "Common responses, co-ordinated and concerted actions are needed. The OSCE is perfectly placed to ensure an efficient collective approach to international problems," he said.

OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut noted that the results of the meeting could contribute to the upcoming OSCE Summit, to be held 1-2 December in Kazakhstan's capital. He urged participants to consider how the Partners could contribute to and benefit from Summit discussions.

"Effective and close co-operation between the OSCE and the Mediterranean Partners is not a matter of choice, but a necessity," he said.

Other OSCE Partners for Co-operation comprise Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Australia.