Untapped potential for increasing security co-operation, says OSCE Chairperson to NATO North Atlantic Council

BRUSSELS, 23 November 2011 – NATO and the OSCE have complementary roles to play in promoting security in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian region as well as in Asia and the Mediterranean, said the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis, in an address to NATO’s North Atlantic Council in Brussels today.

“NATO and the OSCE have worked to reach common objectives - establishing security and promoting democratic ideals in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian region and with our Partners for Co-operation in Asia and the Mediterranean,” he said.

“NATO and the OSCE have complementary roles to play. We work in tandem toward the establishment of secure conditions in which governments and societies can work openly and co-operatively on behalf of their people.”

Ažubalis, emphasizing the importance of maintaining close working relations between the two organizations, said there remained untapped potential for working with and within the OSCE to address shared security challenges.

On North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan, he said the OSCE Foreign Ministers would discuss the potential for enhancing OSCE support at the Ministerial Council in Vilnius on 6 and 7 December.

Ažubalis outlined OSCE work to address transnational threats, and support arms control and confidence and security building measures. He also discussed the OSCE’s efforts to support democratic institutions in Kosovo and resolve protracted conflicts in the OSCE area, and expressed concern about the situation in Belarus.

He emphasized the OSCE’s comprehensive approach to security, and expressed hope that decisions would be taken at the Vilnius Ministerial Council on issues ranging from the safety of journalists to the OSCE’s role in promoting energy and cyber security. 

“It is important that OSCE remains the primary venue for broad security dialogue in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area. Only this approach can unite all OSCE participating States, free of dividing lines, conflicts, spheres of influence and zones with different levels of security,” said Ažubalis.

“The process of reform and fulfilling OSCE commitments is evolutionary at best, progressing sometimes only millimeter by millimeter. It is a process we all must continue to commit ourselves to pursue, however, through continued co-operation, mutual support and complementary activities and actions.”