OSCE Secretary General stresses importance of building broad partnerships to address global security challenges at the 10th Bled Strategic Forum

Speaking at the annual Bled Strategic Forum held on 31 August - 1 September in Slovenia, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier emphasized the importance of developing more effective partnerships to respond to increasingly complex and diverse challenges to international peace and security.

“We need to build new and innovative partnerships with non-governmental actors, including in the private sector. We really need to make an extra effort to create broad coalitions,” Zannier said.

The Forum is a high-level platform for strategic dialogue among leaders from the private and public sectors on key issues facing Europe and the world. Acute crises and conflicts in Europe’s eastern and southern neighbourhoods, pressing migration challenges, and threats of terrorism and violent extremism were at the centre of the debate.

Zannier highlighted the OSCE’s efforts to de-escalate tensions in and around Ukraine and to tackle transnational threats like terrorism, human trafficking and climate change. He cited OSCE Security Days as part of the Organization’s efforts to engage a wider audience in exploring approaches to confronting emerging security challenges in the OSCE region and beyond by involving international organizations, academic institutions, civil society, the private sector, media and young people in the debate.

Some 700 participants from over 60 countries took part in the Forum organized by Slovenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Centre for European Perspective.

Secretary General Zannier held bilateral meetings on the margins of the Forum with  President Borut Pahor and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Karl Erjavec of Slovenia; Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel; Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajčák; the US Department of State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Hoyt Brian Yee; State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia Mohamed Ezzine Chleyfa, and former President of Slovenia, Danilo Türk. Topics of discussions included the situation in and around Ukraine, the current migrant crisis, developments in the Western Balkans and OSCE relations with Partner for Co-operation states.