MIGUEL ANGEL MORATINOS: RUSSIA SHOULD NOT VIEW OSCE AS ENEMY

Interfax, Russia
Aug 30 2007

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos believes the upcoming parliamentary elections in Russia
will be lawful and hopes that Russia will invite the OSCE to be an
integral part of the election process.

"I think the elections in Russia will be held appropriately and
observe election laws. It appears to me that the OSCE will not have
problems," Moratinos told Interfax correspondents Olga Golovanova
and Yekaterina Komissar.

"The OSCE takes part in political affairs when it is invited to a
country where elections are held. I am certainly confident that the
Russian leadership will invite the OSCE to take part in this process.

We will definitely discuss this today, and it seems to me that the
OSCE’s involvement should be considered in a constructive manner," he
said before negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The OSCE should help the institutions responsible for organizing
elections in Russia, Moratinos said. "On no account should the OSCE
be viewed as an enemy. Russia is an OSCE member; and therefore,
it should defend the common principles," he said.

There have been debates previously within the OSCE itself – between
the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the
Parliamentary Assembly – in monitoring election processes in different
countries, Moratinos said. "I think the Spanish chairmanship has
helped make sure that these two organizations work well together. In
any case, the recent elections in Armenia and Kazakhstan went fairly
well. We hope the same will happen in Russia," he said.

Moratinos, however, could not specify how many OSCE observers could
monitor the Duma elections. "Russia is a large country in geographical
terms. This is a question for experts, and they should determine how
many observers will go and to what regions of Russia," he said.

Commenting on Russia’s decision to impose a moratorium on the Treaty
on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Moratinos said this move
should be viewed as an invitation to further negotiate the weapons
control problem.

"As OSCE chairman-in-office, I expressed my concern about this from
the very start. If we all use this moratorium as a proposal that
negotiations should be continued, this situation could be good for
everyone involved. Now that Russia has expressed its standpoint on this
issue, this could possibly help the other CFE signatories concerned
about the situation to express their positions on the issue as well,"
Moratinos said.

Moratinos said he recently made the decision to assign an official
from his ministry to deal solely with the CFE until November.

"My goal is to sign a statement during an OSCE ministerial meeting
in Madrid to make it clear that we all want [the adapted CFE] to
be ratified and that there is enough political will to resolve the
problems surrounding the Treaty’s enforcement. Definitely, we will
talk about this during the negotiations," Moratinos said.

Regarding U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Europe,
Moratinos said, "Each country can settle issues related to its defense
system at a bilateral level. Therefore, Poland and the Czech Republic
can establish any bilateral relations with the U.S. This should
be respected."

"However, this problem should also be considered in the international
context, which calls for negotiations and explanations.

We have always believed that there should be dialogue between the U.S.,
the countries [to host missile defense elements] and Russia.

Therefore, the NATO-Russia Council attached particular significance
to the need for the United States to provide explanations regarding
the parameters of its decision," he said.

Moratinos also told Interfax that Spain’s OSCE chairmanship would be
discussed during Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s
visit to Russia in late September.

"Prime Minister Zapatero will arrive in Russia at the end of September
to further strengthen the wonderful relations existing between Spain
and Russia," Moratinos said.

During Zapatero’s visit to Moscow, Spain would like to discuss the
situation in Iran and in the Balkans, Spain’s OSCE chairmanship in
2007, and the bilateral agenda, including political dialogue, trade
and economic relations, as well as energy issues, Moratinos said.

"We hope that this visit will help bring closer our leaders’ positions
and promote confidence between them and that they will be able to
discuss international issues," he said.

Moratinos said preparations for the Spanish prime minister’s visit
to Moscow was among the goals of his current trip to Moscow.

Rodriguez Zapatero’s September visit will be his third to Russia,
Moratinos said. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Madrid
in 2006.