Astana OSCE Summit has taken place this week. After 11-year break, the Summit did not completed its intitial tasks, and it was impossible to develop a unified document to satisfy all the member states of the organization. Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia Kazbulat Tskhovrebov comments on the results of the OSCE Summit in Astana.
What your evaluation of the OSCE Summit ? Did it bring any results?
- The OSCE Summit held in Astana 1-2 December has already been called a historic one. Frst, 11 years have pssed since the previous Summit, and second, it has been for the first time that the Summit took place on the territory of Asia.
The Summit resulted in the adoption of the Astana Declaration, which reaffirmed the basic principles of the OSCE. The fact that the majority of Summit participants persistently called the conflict over South Ossetia and Abkhazia as internal Georgian raised concenrs. However, we are statisfied with the fact that the final text of the Astana Declaration contains no phrase "conflict in Georgia sought by the Georgian authorities.
I fully support the statement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that it is crucially importajt to develop common principles of conflict settlement to be adhered to followed in all cases and never selectively, in order to avoid again the policy of "double standards". Perhaps, if it were possible to come to a common denominator in this area, the issue of what is more important, the territorial integrity of states, or the right of nations to self-determination, would be soon settled.
In your opinion, is the OSCE an effective organization and does it significantly contribute politically and economically to international relations?
It is necessary to immediately explain that the OSCE is the world's largest regional organization delaing with security, and it has nothing to do with economic issues. It brings together 56 countries located in Europe, North America and Central Asia.
I would like to remind that the goal of the OSCE (the then CSCE) is linked with the idea of a pan-European security system. However, speaking about secuirty, as well as effeciency of the OSCE, here, in South Ossetia, the events preceding the Georgian aggression in August 2008 immediately come to mind. At that time, the OSCE observers in the conflict zone reported on the upcoming Georgian attack, but their reports have not reached the Permanent Council. And the observers themselves hastily left the territory of South Ossetia with the outbreak of hostilities. It should be noted that the Permanent Council did not give due assessment of what happened in our country.
In this regard, we can say that is necessary to increase the effectiveness of the OSCE. This is also clear through the results of the Summit. South Ossetia is also concerned about the biased approach of many officials of the organization, as it was evident in the recent report of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek, who visited South Ossetia.
However, when touching upon inefficiency, I would have warned against conclusions about the political failure or insignificance of the OSCE. The OSCE is a unique platform, a forum that gathers the state, regardless of their participation in any military-political alliances. Here, you can express your state’s position and lead an open dialogue on security issues, transnational threats such as terrorism, trafficking in human beings, drug trafficking, etc.
I would particularly emphasize the OSCE’s functions as a mediator. This is a difficult function, in the implementation of which I would once again call to avoid biased and partial approach.
I fully support Russia's initiative for further action to be taken to make the OSCE a full-fledged intergovernmental organization, and to meet this end, it is necessary to adopt a Charter, and to adjust its acitivities in some fields, including human rights, participation in conflict settlement and democratization. Only after the implementation of concrete steps, the principles set forth in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, will be implemented, and the participating States will not only declare their intentions, as happened this time in Astana, but jointly decide on the whole range of issues of mutual interest.
Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili at the Summit in Astana said that "Georgia is not going to use force to achieve de-occupation."
What is the attitude towards this statement of Saakashvili in South Ossetia?
As for Saakashvili's statements, we can confidently say that the events that followed similar statements made by the Georgian leader on August 7, 2008, will always remain in the memory of the Ossetian people. Therefore, we have no illusions about the peaceful intentions of our southern neighbor. Moreover, it should be taken into account that that after the attack against South Ossetia, Georgia has already restored and continues to build up its military capacities.
In this regard, we reiterate our call to sign a legally binding document on the nonuse of force between the parties in the conflict, that is, between Georgia and South Ossetia, and not between Georgia and Russia.
