“Helsinki Spirit” unlikely to warm East-West relations much at OSCE meeting

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By Kari Huhta
     
      Expectations of improvements to relations between Russia and the West at the meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki have weakened as the preparations go into their final stages.
      The foreign ministers’ meeting that will be held on Thursday and Friday is unlikely to bring about great steps toward a security summit proposed by Russia, say sources in Finland and other European countries.
      “Possibilities for optimism decrease, as we have to think about what will really be said at the meeting”, says a diplomat who has followed the preparations.
     
The annual ministerial meeting of the 56 member states of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe is being held in Finland because Finland is the holder of the chairmanship of the OSCE this year.
      Expectations for the meeting can be seen in the fact that there may be as many as 53 foreign ministers attending the meeting, while in recent years, only about 30 have usually showed up.
      The year of Finland’s chairmanship has been quite a roller coaster ride. At first, the OSCE argued about election observations with Russia, and in August it argued with Russia on election observers, and in August the OSCE was the only outside observer to witness the beginning of the war between Russia and Georgia. The Helsinki meeting has been seen as a possibility to improve relations between East and West after the war.
     
The Western OSCE countries are finalising their choreography in Brussels on Tuesday evening with a dinner to be held in connection with the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting. Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb is Finland’s representative at the “transatlantic dinner”, which will involve both members of NATO, as well as its European partnership countries.
      At the NATO dinner France will be expected to explain what the initiatives it has made for the summit are really all about.
      French President Nicolas Sarkozy has added to Russia’s initiatives at the meeting by putting forward his own version, without discussing them at all with other EU or NATO member states.
     
At the meeting, NATO will take a stand on the question of Georgian and Ukrainian membership. The stand will affect Russian sentiments in Helsinki at the end of the week.
      After the NATO meeting at the latest it will begin to become apparent if it will be possible to approve a joint political declaration at the Helsinki meeting. Such a declaration would pave the way for a summit meeting in one way or another.
     
The last time that the OSCE managed to agree on a political declaration was in 2002, and the last summit was organised in 1999.
      Responsibility for drafting the declaration is with Finland, and ultimately with Stubb, who is personally responsible for the chairmanship. Stubb said in various connections in the week that he will not propose a declaration that would weaken the OSCE’s principles.
      Finland has sent other OSCE countries drafts of the text of the declaration, and has received counter-proposals. In its previous statements, Russia has, in practice, demanded the weakening of the status of NATO and the EU.
      Western countries have seen the demands as an impediment to holding a summit.
     
If no declaration is approved, Finland can put forward an assessment at the end of the meeting on Friday, either alone, or together with former and future chairmanship holders. Its significance for international relations would be much less.
      In any case, the Ministerial Council will have more than a dozen decisions to pass on OSCE activities, which extend from monitoring democracy and human rights to preventing human trafficking, and promoting freedom in the media.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.11.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Condoleezza Rice will not attend OSCE Ministerial Council in Helsinki this week (2.12.2008)
  Stubb wants to get OSCE to agree on political declaration (21.11.2008)
  OSCE Chairmanship keeps Finland busy to very end (1.11.2008)
  COMMENTARY: A successful failure (1.11.2008)

Links:
  The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

KARI HUHTA / Helsingin Sanomat
kari.huhta@hs.fi