Below is the text of Alternate Foreign Minister Sia Anagnostopoulou’s speech at the joint workshop of Syriza’s European Policy and International Relations & Peace Issues departments, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“Ambassadors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to be here among you today, at the Foreign Ministry’s Yiannos Kranidotis Amphitheatre, to welcome the very interesting workshop entitled “From Helsinki to the OSCE: Challenges for European Security and Pan-European Cooperation”. The Workshop is being held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
First of all, I would like to congratulate the organizers on their initiative for highlighting, through this workshop, the importance of the CSCE and of the OSCE, which resulted from the Conference, in promoting and consolidating indivisible and cooperative security in the wider geographical space extending from Vancouver to Vladivostok.
The signing of the Helsinki Final Act, as the culmination of the first CSCE, in August 1975, was a watershed in a collective effort to confront a variety of challenges to security and stability on a regional level.
The 1975 CSCE reflects the effort to transition from the doctrine of “balance of fear” to the doctrine of “balance of active peace”. August 1974 was a defining moment in the Cold-War era: It was the moment when the clash between two empires with a mutual threat of nuclear annihilation was transformed into an effort towards co-existence of the nation states in a new, common space. For the first time in the post-war era, Europe was self-determined as a major geopolitical entity and decided to take its fate into its own hands. While the Cold-War mindset perpetuated the specter of war in Europe, the CSCE came to “rationalize” the nuclear threat and disperse the clouds of war.
The 40th anniversary is an opportunity for an assessment – positive, I think you will agree – of the multidimensional work of the CSCE and the OSCE. At the same time, it is a departure point for the development of a productive consideration of the risks for peace and European security.
What is our vision for European Security, and what moves do we need to make to consolidate it in a complex and unstable environment?
Our vision is to reverse the existing distrust and restore trust, strengthening mutual understanding through an open and inclusive dialogue based on sincere political will. The OSCE, driven by a cohesive approach to issues of security, remains, from this perspective, the appropriate forum for dialogue aimed at laying the foundations for mutually beneficial cooperation based on agreed principles and rules.
Thus, under the present conditions, it is of the utmost importance that, within the OSCE, we revitalize the dialogue on European Security. The reappearance of dividing lines in Europe would be damaging for all of us, and it would be a collective failure.
At this point, I remind you of the experience and acquis of the Corfu Process of 2009-2010 for strengthening security on our continent. In this spirit of cooperation, we need to move ahead and consider from its incipience the Helsinki+40 Process that is underway, as well as the new paths and potential roles for the system of collective security that is the OSCE.
No one can ignore the fact that the crisis in Ukraine has deeply influenced the European Security agenda. This crisis became the occasion for the upgrading of the OSCE as an organization of collective security and stability, and as a platform for dialogue for the settlement of conflicts in the Eurasian space. It gave the OSCE an opportunity to show that it can play an important and effective role in confronting such situations in a direct manner. Everyone’s firm support for the OSCE’s work in Ukraine is decisive to its success. In the framework of the OSCE, the European Union is trying to speak in a single voice, and before every meeting, the member states try to coordinate and harmonize their positions. We mustn’t overlook the fact that the EU contributes some 70% of the OSCE budget. The Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, with a budget of some €85 million – the mandate of which has been extended through 31 March 2016 – is proof of the Organization’s enduring interest in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Through the Ukrainian issue, there emerged a post-Cold War framework that has yet to crystalize, and within which the European political scene is being militarized through NATO, while at the same time, on the other side – on the Russian side, that is – the trend towards military response is being strengthened. This is creating potential new Cold-War conditions with conflict hotspots. So the Ukraine issue must concern us, because it is bringing back to old familiar scenes of conflict between the two superpowers from the second half of the 20th century.
The Ukrainian crisis is without a doubt the priority issue for the OSCE today, absorbing a large portion of its efforts. However, it mustn’t overshadow the need for us to continue to deal in a comprehensive manner with the problems at the core of security. Protracted or frozen conflicts (South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria), horizontal threats – such as terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking, narcotics, weapons trafficking, cyberattacks – and challenges like the unprecedented migrant and refugee flows and the social repercussions of the economic crisis on a significant number of countries are common security issues that demand urgent and extensive attention.
As you know, the maintenance of European Security is inextricably linked to a viable and functional arms control mechanism. We must support the efforts to get past the stagnancy we see in the area of seeking ways to overcome the difficulties arising in individual issues.
It is self-evident that there is no security without respect for human rights and basic freedoms. Human rights violations, lack of tolerance, religious extremism, racism and xenophobia are phenomena that negatively impact our countries’ security and stability. For this reason, there needs to be, within the OSCE framework, a deepening of dialogue and cooperation on effective and long-term combating of such phenomena, with the ultimate goal, of course, of eradicating them.
We mustn’t forget that the OSCE is the largest regional security organization and that its multidimensional nature provides a comparative advantage over other international organizations active in the same sector.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Greece’s main goal within the framework of the OSCE remains the strengthening of the European Security Dialogue, in a balanced manner and in the Organization’s three dimensions: the politico-military; the economic and environmental; and the human. Our active participation in OSCE activities is firmly based on the further strengthening of trust among the participating states and the building of a substantial Security Community in the Euroatlantic and Eurasian space.
In closing, I would like to wish you every success with your Workshop. I am certain that everything heard during the Workshop will be a valuable contribution to the always timely concerns regarding European security and the course of pan-European cooperation – issues that will never stop being of immediate concern to the leadership and citizens of our country.
Thank you for your attention.”
July 30, 2015