Kyiv and the NATO allies have discussed the forthcoming meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council and possible decisions that are to be approved at the meeting in Kyiv in December.
The discussion was held during a meeting at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday as part of a meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at the level of ambassadors, Ukraine’s permanent representative to Vienna-headquartered international organizations Ihor Prokopchuk told journalists following the meeting.
The Ukrainian diplomat said that at the meeting he presented “the practical results of Ukraine’s presidency” of the OSCE.
“Today, we are facing the most important stage of our presidency – the stage connected with the preparations for the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting due in Kyiv on December 5-6 this year. In connection with this, talks are actively held regarding the approval of decisions proposed by the Ukrainian chairmanship,” Prokopchuk said.
The diplomat also informed the participants of the meeting on the results of Ukraine’s presidency “in all dimensions of the OSCE’s activities.”
He also said that all member states of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council are OSCE members as well.
“As for [the meeting in] Kyiv [scheduled for December], we talked about a common approach to the issues that could be the main results of this meeting. Thus, we discussed a package of decisions proposed by the Ukrainian chairmanship,” he said.
Prokopchuk added that the decisions were related to “all three dimensions.” In particular, he mentioned Ukraine’s initiative regarding the update of the OSCE’s document on the principles of nuclear non-proliferation and the necessity to sum up the dialogue within the Helsinki+40 process [the process aimed at the update of organizations started in Dublin in 2012].
“We are planning to hold one more meeting on the settlement of conflicts on the Helsinki+40 process by the end of this year. Today’s discussion demonstrated big support of all countries for the work carried out by the Ukrainian chairmanship during this year within this process association agreement well as their support for our proposal to approve a political declaration by ministers regarding the future course of the Helsinki+40 process,” Prokopchuk said.
The Ukrainian diplomat also noted that the key task of the Helsinki+40 process was to outline the main tasks of the OSCE as an international organization for security in the modern architecture of European security by 2015, when the 40th anniversary of the Declaration of Helsinki, signed on July 30-August 1 in Helsinki by 35 heads of states, is marked.
Prokopchuk stressed that the OSCE has versatile approach to security issues, including connection between the issues of security in the military and political, economic, environmental, and humanitarian dimensions.
“This means that violation of safety in one of these dimensions will have consequences for security in general in countries and regions,” the diplomat said.
