Foreign ministers from Europe’s main security organization will try to work out a response to Russia’s proposal for a new Euro-Atlantic security pact at a meeting in Athens yesterday and today.
Diplomats said it was far from clear whether the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes the US and Russia, would make progress on the issue since members have so far disagreed on how to reorganize dialogue on security.
“There are different perspectives on how Europe’s security architecture should be designed,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is also foreign minister, wrote in a newspaper article on Monday. “But we all agree on the urgent need to tackle this critical challenge through constructive dialogue.”
Greece holds the rotating OSCE chairmanship until next month when Kazakhstan takes up the post.
At a previous OSCE meeting in Greece in June, the West showed it was skeptical about Russia’s plans for a pan-European security pact, saying it should not undermine NATO or OSCE. Ministers such as France’s Bernard Kouchner said there was no need for any new structures.
Russia has pressed on with the idea and on Sunday published a proposal for a new Euro-Atlantic security treaty that would restrict its ability to use military force unilaterally if the US and its European allies agreed to do the same.
Russia and fellow OSCE members have been at odds for months over the organization’s monitoring mission in Georgia, the Black Sea state with which Russia fought a war last year. The mission closed down in June after months of fruitless talks on its mandate.
Relations have also deteriorated over issues such as the US plan for a missile shield in Europe. The US announced in September that it would roll back the plan.
“We need to break the deadlock of mistrust by reinvigorating our co-operation and strengthening our solidarity,” Papandreou said in a statement published by the OSCE earlier this month. “We must do so because unstable relations between our neighboring states affect security in Europe as a whole.”
Several bilateral meetings are planned in the margins of the talks, including between Turkey and Greece and between Greece and Macedonia, to try to make progress towards settling a dispute over the latter’s name.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not attend and Foreign ministers from major OSCE members such as the US, Britain and Germany will not attend either.
Russia has also urged the US and NATO to keep it better informed about their plans for the war in Afghanistan.
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