"Weakening" OSCE fails to reach agreements (Roundup)

Nov 30, 2007, 18:11 GMT

Madrid - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) failed to approve a joint political declaration Friday at an annual meeting marked by a deepening rift between the United States and Russia.

The failure to approve joint declarations since 2002 weakened the OSCE, deprived it of orientation and made it less efficient, the Spanish presidency of the human rights and security watchdog said in its own final document.

The OSCE postponed a decision on the future of its Kosovo mission. The Spanish presidency called on Russia to reconsider its decision to abandon a key arms control treaty, while the US and the European Union (EU) continued bickering with Moscow over the role of OSCE election monitors.

The organization did, however, reach agreements on launching a new mission to ensure frontier security in Afghanistan, on its future chairmanship and on raising its profile in the fight against terrorism.

More than 40 foreign ministers as well as lower-level representatives from 56 OSCE countries attended the two-day meeting in the Spanish capital.

The OSCE will establish a mission in Afghanistan to reinforce border security in an attempt to prevent drug trafficking, crime and insecurity from spilling over into neighbouring countries, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said.

The OSCE also agreed on its chairmanship after Spain passes it over to Finland in 2008. Finland will be followed by Greece, Kazakhstan and Lithuania.

Washington gave its backing to the Russian-backed Kazakh bid after Astana pledged to protect the rights of the OSCE's election monitoring body, allowing the US to downplay earlier doubts about Kazakhstan's democratic credentials.

Disagreements between Washington and Moscow nevertheless overshadowed the meeting, with Burns criticizing Russia for suspending participation in the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. President Vladimir Putin signed the suspension on Friday.

It was the 'a major mistake' for Russia to 'unilaterally walk out' of the most important arms control treaty in the past two decades, Burns said.

Washington and its allies within the OSCE had made vain attempts to persuade Moscow to backtrack on its decision to scrap the CFE over US plans for a defence shield in eastern Europe and NATO's failure to ratify a 1999 new version of the treaty.

Burns also accused Russia, Uzbekistan and Belarus of 'attacking' the OSCE election monitoring body ODIHR.

The organ is boycotting Sunday's parliamentary elections in Russia, citing difficulties in obtaining visas for observers and other obstacles.

The US rejected a Russian proposal to modify the mandate of ODIHR for instance by prohibiting election observers from making instant comments after polls.

The US accuses Russia of trying to undermine democracy at the OSCE, while Moscow says it wants to make the organization more egalitarian.

Moscow suspects the West of focusing on democracy and human rights issues at the OSCE in order to push for Western political interests in former Soviet states.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov painted a pessimistic picture of the state of the OSCE, saying the organization was in a 'serious crisis' after failing to adopt reforms such as a charter clarifying its tasks.

He accused the West of promoting 'group interests' and of applying 'double standards' to different countries.

The OSCE postponed a decision on the future of its 1,000-strong mission in Kosovo, where its largest field presence is tasked with protecting the Serb minority and with training police.

Russia does not want the OSCE to stay in Kosovo if the province becomes independent from Serbia against the will of Belgrade, a Moscow ally.

The US and its European allies would like to extend the OSCE mandate in Kosovo after it expires at the end of the year regardless of the status of the region.

The OSCE, which grew out of a predecessor founded in 1975 during the Cold War, comprises countries from Europe, Central Asia and the Americas.