US call for cooperation in Afghanistan at OSCE
The first European security summit in 11 years has kicked off today in Astana, Kazakhstan, with the US calling for more co-operation in Afghanistan from the 56-country strong community.
The meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) hosted the American secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who asked for stronger support to back the US-led conflict in Afghanistan.
“Instability in Afghanistan is dangerous for Central Asia and for the OSCE region as a whole,” said Ms Clinton today to the representatives of the member countries of the OSCE.
“Regional crises and transnational dangers threaten our people. Democracies are under pressure, and protracted conflicts remain dangerously unresolved.”
She added that, on the occasion of the recent conflict between Georgia and Russia, the OSCE answered slowly, and thus called for strengthening the bonds within the organisation members.
It is the first time an OSCE meeting is held in a former Soviet Union state. Kazakhstan president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, opened the summit praising the summit as a “triumph of common sense”.
“The summit for the first time takes place in a new country, which became independent in large part due to the principles of the Helsinki Final Act,” he said.
“The uniqueness of our Summit lies in the fact that is taking place in the heart of Eurasia, a thousand miles from the geographical boundaries of Europe. This reflects the changed paradigm of European security.”
He called for the OSCE to “resolve contradictions” and to strengthen “trust and integration”.
“Eurasian security is not a metaphor, it’s a strict geopolitical fact,” he added, asking OSCE members to do more against terrorism and local conflicts and crises.
The meeting is thought to discuss, among other issues, the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which declared an unrecognised independence in the early 1990s.
The choice of Kazakhstan to host OSCE is also symbolical, for it is right in the centre of a region where drug trafficking is prosperous and Islamic fundamentalism has been expanding.
Petros Efthymiou, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said: “There is no doubt how much lies at stake here in Astana, and we don’t have the luxury to let it fall.”
Russia’s president, Dmitry Medveded, said: “This organisation has really started losing its potential. We should put it straight.”
US president Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy did not attend the summit.
After the release of 250,000 US embassy cables by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, today’s meeting was not an easy one for the US, particularly for Secretary Clinton.
Her name was found at the bottom of several controversial communications leaked to the public, in which she asked ambassadors at the UN to gather private information on UN staff and its general secretary, Ban Ki-moon.
She also questioned US embassies in Rome and Moscow about the close relationship between Russia’s and Italy’s PMs, Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin. Clinton received answers that were definitely not diplomatic on the two men’s macho attitude and private financial interests leading their friendship.
Talking this morning to the Italian Prime Minister, Ms Clinton – somewhat goofily – backtracked: “Mr Berlusconi has given his support to three American presidents, and we don’t have a better friend than him.”
(Read the full article on The Fresh Outlook)
01.12.2010
The meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) hosted the American secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who asked for stronger support to back the US-led conflict in Afghanistan.
“Instability in Afghanistan is dangerous for Central Asia and for the OSCE region as a whole,” said Ms Clinton today to the representatives of the member countries of the OSCE.
“Regional crises and transnational dangers threaten our people. Democracies are under pressure, and protracted conflicts remain dangerously unresolved.”
She added that, on the occasion of the recent conflict between Georgia and Russia, the OSCE answered slowly, and thus called for strengthening the bonds within the organisation members.
It is the first time an OSCE meeting is held in a former Soviet Union state. Kazakhstan president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, opened the summit praising the summit as a “triumph of common sense”.
“The summit for the first time takes place in a new country, which became independent in large part due to the principles of the Helsinki Final Act,” he said.
“The uniqueness of our Summit lies in the fact that is taking place in the heart of Eurasia, a thousand miles from the geographical boundaries of Europe. This reflects the changed paradigm of European security.”
He called for the OSCE to “resolve contradictions” and to strengthen “trust and integration”.
“Eurasian security is not a metaphor, it’s a strict geopolitical fact,” he added, asking OSCE members to do more against terrorism and local conflicts and crises.
The meeting is thought to discuss, among other issues, the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which declared an unrecognised independence in the early 1990s.
The choice of Kazakhstan to host OSCE is also symbolical, for it is right in the centre of a region where drug trafficking is prosperous and Islamic fundamentalism has been expanding.
Petros Efthymiou, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said: “There is no doubt how much lies at stake here in Astana, and we don’t have the luxury to let it fall.”
Russia’s president, Dmitry Medveded, said: “This organisation has really started losing its potential. We should put it straight.”
US president Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy did not attend the summit.
After the release of 250,000 US embassy cables by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, today’s meeting was not an easy one for the US, particularly for Secretary Clinton.
Her name was found at the bottom of several controversial communications leaked to the public, in which she asked ambassadors at the UN to gather private information on UN staff and its general secretary, Ban Ki-moon.
She also questioned US embassies in Rome and Moscow about the close relationship between Russia’s and Italy’s PMs, Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin. Clinton received answers that were definitely not diplomatic on the two men’s macho attitude and private financial interests leading their friendship.
Talking this morning to the Italian Prime Minister, Ms Clinton – somewhat goofily – backtracked: “Mr Berlusconi has given his support to three American presidents, and we don’t have a better friend than him.”
(Read the full article on The Fresh Outlook)
01.12.2010