NEWS ANALYSIS: Collateral damage from Finnish OSCE Chairmanship
Caucasus crises replace great power conflicts
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By Kari Huhta
When a missile fired by a Russian fighter plane blew up a Georgian reconnaissance drone above Abkhazia on April 20th, the collateral damage extended from the shores of the Black Sea all the way to Helsinki.
As the holder of the Chairmanship of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Finland cannot remain a passive onlooker in the dispute between Georgia and Russia, which continues after the downing of the aircraft in the OSCE as well.
In other respects, Finland’s year chairing the OSCE has been more successful than anticipated, so far.
Future prospects for the OSCE are the subject of a discussion in Helsinki on Monday. Participants include both Spain, the previous holder of the chairmanship, and the next three countries - Greece, Kazakhstan, and Lithuania. The meeting was to have brought together five foreign ministers, but Spain and Greece sent substitutes.
In advance of the meeting, assessments in the OSCE of Finland’s year at the helm have been fairly positive. The organisation has made it through its disputes on election monitoring and financing, the OSCE is still operating in Kosovo in spite of its independence, and warnings of the OSCE’s ultimate withering away have been silenced for now.
Finland’s representatives have been praised for holding budget talks with skill and tact. However, without a slight easing in great power disputes, the negotiation skills would have gone to waste. Great power conflicts reflect powerfully on the OSCE. Disputes can be aired on a weekly basis at meetings of the organisation’s Permanent Council in Vienna.
“Bickering between the United States and Russia has clearly eased in the Permanent Council, but the exchange of words between Georgia and Russia has been rather hard”, says an OSCE diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.
The new atmosphere did not bring any actual breakthroughs. Negotiations on the treaty limiting conventional weapons, brought to a standstill by Russia, are going nowhere.
On the other hand, there is a pause in attempts to needlessly encumber the process. In addition to an agreement on the budget, the OSCE has managed to chose a leader for its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The difficult task of Slovenian Janez Lenarcic is to maintain both the credibility of election monitoring, and the relationship with Russia, whose Parliamentary and Presidential elections ODIHR did not monitor because of what were seen as unreasonable preconditions.
However, the nature of the new woes of the OSCE are such that Finland simply cannot get praise from everyone for its handling of the issues. The dispute between Russia and Gorgia does not only divide the ranks of the 56 member states of the OSCE. Also the 27 members of the European Union are on opposite sides over support for Georgia.
No decisions in the dispute are expected in the OSCE because Russia can block them on its own. However, Russia cannot avoid answering Georgia’s inquiry on the course of events, and Georgia can force the organisation to discuss the subject at length. During that discussion, some countries will call on Finland to be active - for instance, by asking Russia for clarifications, and others will call for a passive stance.
Finland faces difficult times in any case in regional disputes that are part of the OSCE’s responsibility. In addition to the minority rights of Georgia’s pro-Russian areas, the long-standing territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan has escalated during the Finnish chairmanship. These crises of the South Caucasus were the most visible threat to the prospect that Finland’s period as holder of the OSCE Chairmanship might be called a success at the end of the year as well.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 2.62008
KARI HUHTA / Helsingin Sanomat
kari.huhta@hs.fi
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| 3.6.2008 - THIS WEEK |
 NEWS ANALYSIS: Collateral damage from Finnish OSCE Chairmanship |
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