Arms control

Participating States recognized the risk of armed conflict and misunderstanding or miscalculation of military activities in the Helsinki Final Act in 1975. The document sets out the need to contribute to reducing these dangers, “which could give rise to apprehension, particularly in a situation where the participating States lack clear and timely information about the nature of such activities.” It was followed by a plethora of other CSCECSCE
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe and OSCE decisions and declarations that aimed to strengthen security between the participating States.

Arms control treaties

During the East-West negotiations in the early 1970s, the participating States considered strengthening the confidence between them a central element of increasing security. Building on this premise, the participating States created a set of unique confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs), which include information exchanges, means for compliance and verification, as well as different forms of military co-operation. They aim to reduce the risks of conflict, increase trust among the States and contribute to greater openness and transparency in the field of military planning and activities. They can also serve as early warning indicators of potential conflict situations.

Our institutions and offices

The Forum for Security Co-operation—the OSCE decision-making body dealing with politico-military aspects of security—contributes to these efforts by developing documents on CSBMsCSBMs
Confidence- and security-building measures, including those regulating transfers of conventional arms, and establishing principles governing non-proliferation. It has adopted several decisions on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and, under this framework, the OSCE runs a project that assists interested participating States in producing national action plans and building up the required legislative basis concerning WMD non-proliferation.

The Forum also helps implement the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security and works on norms and assistance to counter the spread of small arms and light weapons. The participating States have adopted a number of key documents to regulate the production, transfer, storage, collection, and destruction of such weapons, and to control their export. The Forum is instrumental in helping States implement these documents. Upon request, it also provides assistance with collection and destruction of small arms and light weapons and conventional ammunition, helps improve legislation to effectively control small arms and assists in improving stockpile management.