OSCE Secretary General Calls for Renewed Commitment to Helsinki Final Act Principles During Visit to Helsinki

HELSINKI, August 2, 2025 – OSCE Secretary General Ambassador Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu concluded his official visit to Helsinki, where he participated in the Helsinki+50 Conference and held a series of high-level bilateral meetings.

In his keynote address to the conference—commemorating 50 years since the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975—the Secretary General emphasized,

“If there is one lesson we can draw from the ‘spirit of Helsinki’ in 1975, it’s that dialogue is always possible. The only prerequisite for dialogue is a space to conduct it. And that space has a name in Europe: the OSCE. Now is the time to use it—and to utilize it as a platform for meaningful, open, transparent, and structured diplomatic dialogue.”

Alongside OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Secretary General launched the Helsinki+50 Fund—a new framework to promote the core principles of the Helsinki Final Act through structured, extra-budgetary funding.

Secretary General Sinirlioğlu also held bilateral meetings with Andrii Sybiha, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine; Battsetseg Batmunkh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia; and Tanja Fajon, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia, Stephen Doughty, Minister of State, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; Pere Joan Pons, President of the OSCE PA; CICA Secretary General Kairat Sarybay; and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

The Secretary General held a productive session with the Heads of Mission and Field Presences of the OSCE field operations attending the conference. He also participated in the OSCE Chairpersonship Youth Forum with Chairperson-in-Office Valtonen, where both received recommendations and proposals for future action from young participants.

In addition, Secretary General Sinirlioğlu addressed the third annual meeting of the Expert Network on the OSCE, reaffirming that in today’s volatile global landscape, the OSCE is more essential than ever as a platform for rebuilding trust and addressing shared challenges.