“THE UNIQUE HERITAGE OF HELSINKI MUST BE PRESERVED AND ENRICHED”
24-08-2010
Interview with the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the OSCE, Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council, Kairat ABDRAKHMANOV ("KAZAKHSTAN-OSCE" STATE BOOK. PUBLISHED IN JULY 2010)
– Mr. Ambassador, to all appearances, Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship has required you, as the country’s official representative at its Vienna headquarters, to make huge additional efforts. In your opinion, what is the special nature of the work in this Organization?
– The OSCE Chairmanship is indeed a national project for Kazakhstan. Naturally, the responsibility we are assuming is very great. Therefore, thanks to the continuous support and credit of trust on the part of the country’s leadership, the Permanent Mission has prepared for this important assignment.
Responding to your question about the specific nature of work in the OSCE, I would like to outline what are, for me, the most important peculiarities of this international structure.
Firstly, for almost 35 years now, the OSCE has been serving as the sole multilateral forum for dialogue and decision-making in the vast space from Vancouver to Vladivostok. The Helsinki process launched the totally new and unprecedented culture of multilateral dialogue on European security issues. To my mind, the culture of dialogue is an extremely significant OSCE value. This unique heritage of Helsinki must be preserved and enriched.
The second peculiarity of the OSCE lies in the geographical spread of the participating states, which makes it the world’s largest regional organization. The expression “from Vancouver to Vladivostok” generally used in the OSCE implies a wide space uniting all the states of Europe, the post-Soviet countries, the USA and Canada.
The third important peculiarity of our Organization may be said to be its comprehensive approach to security issues. As you know, the OSCE considers security as a complex term and acts in three “dimensions”: the military-political, the economic-environmental and the human.
The next peculiarity of the OSCE is an approach to security that is based on cooperation. The OSCE tends not to impose penalties for failure to observe this or that commitment; it provides assistance to the participating states through dialogue and co-operation.
Here, I would like to emphasize the concept of “common and comprehensive security” enshrined in the Charter for European Security (1999), which declares that the “security of each participating State is inseparably linked to that of all others”.
The fifth significant peculiarity of the OSCE is the principle of decision-making based on consensus. This means that decisions are made unanimously. Thus, we have an equality of the OSCE participating states. Moreover, consensus confers a special significance on decisions.
The sixth peculiarity of the OSCE refers to flexibility and ability to adapt. The OSCE is a unique organization permanently going through uneasy times. In the 1970s and the 1980s, the organization, then known as the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, played a leading role in the process of reducing tensions in the relations between the East and the West. In the 1990s, the major OSCE objective was to manage the changes in Europe after the Cold War. Today, we see new geo-political realities emerging. However, throughout all that time, the documentary base of the OSCE has remained in effect. From time to time, it was confirmed at a higher level and amended in accordance with new challenges.
The strength of the OSCE’s ability to adapt refers not only to the Organization’s functional capacities but above all to the participating states’ political will. Unless such a will exists, the joint work will be fruitless. I would like to stress that last statement.
It is no accident that Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Head of our State, in his article entitled “The Fate and Prospects of the OSCE” focused on the task of the efficient adaptation of the Organization to the rapidly changing conditions of the twenty-first century. The new international context requires a new quality of cooperation. The OSCE Summit of Heads of State and Government is expected to make a substantial contribution to the process.
– For the year of Kazakhstan’s Chairmanship, you have assumed management responsibility over the work of the Permanent Council of the Organization. Please describe briefly the operating principles and procedures of the Permanent Council. What role does it play in the process of preparation and making of decisions in the OSCE?
– The OSCE Permanent Council, which meets in Vienna, is the body for political consultation and decision-making on all matters relating to the Organization.
The Permanent Council is responsible for the OSCE’s day-to-day activities. Its operation is guided by the representative of the Chairperson-in-Office. The members of the Permanent Council, who are the permanent representatives of the 56 participating states, meet weekly on Thursdays at the OSCE’s Headquarters, located in the Hofburg Imperial Palace in the centre of Vienna. Twelve partner states are entitled to take part in meetings as observers. In the case of crisis situations, as a rule, special meetings of the Permanent Council are convened as, for example, in connection with the situation in Kyrgyzstan.
During the weekly plenary meetings of the Permanent Council, its members raise the issues of security affecting their states and other OSCE participating States. All the delegations participating in the Council have equal rights.
As I have already mentioned, all the OSCE decisions are taken by consensus, i.e. every decision is subject to approval by all 56 participating states of the Organization. So there is no voting procedure in the Council. One of the Chairperson’s tasks is to ensure common consent on any given decision. In the event that one or more participating states opposes any decision, the draft is returned for additional discussions. However, as soon as the decision has been adopted, it becomes politically binding on all the participating states.
Certainly, the weekly plenary meetings of the Permanent Council are only the tip of the iceberg. The lion’s share of work for preparing decisions is carried out in the context of bilateral and multilateral, formal and informal consultations, both in Vienna and in other capitals of the participating states. During the final stage of multilateral negotiations, the main role is played by the Preparatory Committee, consisting of senior diplomats of participating states’ representations at the OSCE in Vienna.
– What was the reaction of the Permanent Council to the events that took place in Kyrgyzstan in April? What did the Permanent Council, headed by you, do during the crisis?
– Beginning in the first days of the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, on the instructions of the Chairperson-in-Office, Kanat Saudabayev, Kazakhstan’s Permanent Mission initiated consultation procedures with the participating states and the OSCE Secretariat, and also coordinated activities by the Organization’s institutions. We received information on-line from the OSCE Centre in Bishkek. On 8 April, Kazakhstan’s Chairmanship convened a special meeting of the Permanent Council, at which we informed the participating states about the initial steps that had been taken to normalize the situation in the country. By the way, on the same day, Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, who had just completed his trip in Central Asia, spoke at the OSCE Permanent Council.
It should be emphasized that the dramatic crisis in Kyrgyzstan has become the gravest test for the OSCE itself since the time of the events that occurred in Georgia in August 2008. In those difficult April days, the task of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Vienna and the OSCE Secretariat was to arrange for international support for the Chairmanship’s activities aimed at stabilization of the situation in Kyrgyzstan. I should say that we received such support at once, in the form of responding statements by delegations, both at the Permanent Council and in the course of consultations. Simultaneously, the day-to-day requirement for the Chairmanship included providing constant information about the actions to be taken; therefore, we intensified coordinating meetings with the participating states. To support the work of Zhanybek Karibzhanov, the Special Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office, a delegation headed by Herbert Salber, the Director of the Conflict Prevention Centre of the OSC
E Secretariat, was sent to Bishkek. In addition, the Permanent Council adopted a decision on the prompt provision of additional financial resources from the OSCE special fund directed at strengthening the activities of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, with a view to attenuating the consequences of the tragic events in Kyrgyzstan.
– What is your personal assessment of the OSCE Chairmanship’s significance? What heritage will it leave to our citizens, and what effect, from your point of view, will it exert on the further development of our state?
– The OSCE Chairmanship represents a great achievement by Kazakhstan during our years of independence. The country’s assignment to this highly regarded and responsible position reflects recognition of our country’s successful development, of the consolidation of its society, of its contribution to international security, and of its establishment of regional cooperation and integration.
Governance over such an important organization as the OSCE fully coincides with the spirit of Kazakhstan’s proactive foreign policy. This makes it possible to promote our interests, priorities and values at a higher international level, using a wide range of tools possessed by the Organization. Evidently, the experience of chairmanship will have a positive influence on the further progress of the state on its way to democracy.
While we were preparing to hold this high office, it was widely suggested that the OSCE Chairmanship would be a test of maturity for Kazakhstan’s diplomacy. One could not disagree with that. Now, Kazakhstan’s diplomats, older and younger, are involved in all the issues in the Organization’s agenda. They are engaged in settling conflicts and resolving crisis situations, and are involved in the processes of observation of elections and human rights compliance monitoring; they coordinate international discussions about European security, and they participate in OSCE projects.
In addition to work in the Task Force in Astana and at the Permanent Mission at the OSCE in Vienna, representatives of Kazakhstan hold positions in the offices of the OSCE Secretary General, the Coordinator of Economic and Environmental Activities, the Department of Management and Finance, and the Conference Services, and also in the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (in Warsaw), the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities (in the Hague), and in OSCE’s field operations. All the above are giving our diplomatic service the benefit of invaluable knowledge and practical experience.
Thus, the main heritage from the Chairmanship, in my opinion, is a qualitatively new level of involvement by Kazakhstan in international affairs. Apart from this, the main issue for us lies in the extent to which the geopolitical environment of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, and the situation in the whole area of the OSCE, will have become secured after 2010. In this context, we have been preparing for the Chairmanship, and I am sure that, in the end, we will have the relevant feedback.
