EurasiaNet, NY
Jan 15 2008

CONFLICT RESOLUTION, BORDER SECURITY ARE TOP OSCE PRIORITIES FOR 2008
— CHAIRMAN

Jean-Christophe Peuch 1/15/08

Trying to solve the protracted Soviet-era conflicts of
Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and the Transdniester was among
Belgium’s top priorities when it assumed the rotating leadership of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2006.

Despite Belgium Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht’s anticipation that
his chairmanship would bring "new opportunities," the year brought no
substantial progress on any of the three conflicts.

Spain, which led the OSCE throughout 2007, did not make conflict
resolution a top priority. Its efforts focused primarily on the fight
against terrorism and environmental issues, among others. But
Finland, which assumed the organization’s leadership at the beginning
of this year, intends to turn the spotlight back on the so-called
"frozen conflicts."

Addressing the OSCE’s Permanent Council in Vienna on January 10,
Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva said conflict prevention and
conflict management would "lie at the core of [the Finnish]
chairmanship."

"I will use every opportunity to make progress on regional issues in
close consultation with all parties," he told the panel.

In a program that was circulated among OSCE ambassadors, Kanerva said
he would seek "to create enabling conditions for the peaceful
resolution of regional conflicts" and "encourage all the parties to
resume negotiations in order to find feasible political resolutions
of the conflicts."

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili last October said
Finland’s firm stance against Russia when it held the rotating
presidency of the European Union the previous year gave him reasons
to hope that substantial progress would be made on the South Ossetian
conflict in 2008.

But with presidential elections scheduled in Armenia and Azerbaijan
later this year, Finland’s task will certainly not be easy — even
though its diplomats are generally believed to be more familiar with
the Soviet-era "frozen conflicts" than their Belgian or Spanish
counterparts.

In comments made to Baku’s Day.az, an electronic daily, Azerbaijan’s
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on December 7 said that because of
Helsinki’s longtime involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks
he was looking forward to the upcoming Finnish chairmanship. But he
implicitly warned against setting expectations too high, saying that
"elections always make the atmosphere of negotiations more
sensitive."

In the years 1995-1996 Finland co-chaired the Minsk Group of nations
that has been mediating in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks on behalf
of the OSCE.

Kanerva told the Permanent Council he had appointed Heikki Talvitie
to assist and advise him during his chairmanship. Talvitie has served
as Finland’s Minsk Group co-chair and the EU’s special representative
to the South Caucasus. Another former member of Finland’s Minsk Group
co-chairmanship team, Ambassador Terhi Hakala, has been in charge of
the OSCE Mission to Georgia since October.

Talking to reporters in Vienna last week, Talvitie said he believed
there was a "momentum" in Nagorno-Karabakh and that "there might be
one" in South Ossetia. However, he said Finland should be "realistic"
as to what it could expect to achieve in the region.

A member of the Finnish delegation told EurasiaNet on condition of
anonymity that the new chairman-in-office will concentrate his
efforts on trying to improve the work of the existing negotiation
mechanisms in which the OSCE is involved, in particular that of the
Joint Control Commission (JCC), a quadrilateral body co-chaired by
Georgian, South Ossetian, North Ossetian and Russian representatives.
"We’re not trying to make a big fuss about our role, but if we can
help in a technical way that will mean a lot in many other ways," the
Finnish diplomat said.

Negotiations between Tbilisi and Tskhinvali are stalled. Georgia
accuses Russia and South Ossetia of blocking the implementation of
all decisions made within the JCC framework and demands that the
negotiation format be changed.

The JCC met in a plenary session only once last year. The October
meeting produced no results, notably because of Tbilisi’s insistence
that Dmitri Sanakoyev, the head of the recently created pro-Georgian
provisional administration of South Ossetia, be recognized as a
fully-fledged party to the peace process.

Asked by EurasiaNet whether Finland would consider engaging with
Sanakoyev, Talvitie remained non-committal. "Sanakoyev is a new
element. Let’s see in the future if he fits into the picture," he
said.

Beyond the frozen conflicts, Kanerva said in his program that
Finland’s chairmanship would also encourage the OSCE to build
stronger relations with its Central Asian member states with a view
to helping them combat human trafficking and the smuggling of arms
and drugs. With this respect, he says, the organization should put a
"specific focus" on border security and management.

In his address to the Permanent Council, Finland’s chief diplomat
pointed out that his country already had contributed more than
500,000 euros ($745,000) to projects aimed at enhancing the security
of the Tajik-Afghan border.

One of the few achievements of the OSCE Ministerial Council that took
place in Madrid in November was a consensual decision to step up the
organization’s engagement with partner state Afghanistan, with a
special focus on securing its borders with the Central Asian
countries of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Madrid
decision followed the launching of an OSCE project to train Afghan
anti-drug police.

Kanerva last week invited Kazakhstan and Lithuania — which are due
to take the helm of the OSCE in 2010 and 2011, respectively — to
join the organization’s current troika "in developing ideas for
long-term activities."

The troika is the OSCE’s main political decision-making institution.
It consists of the chairman-in-office, its predecessor, and its
successor. Kanerva suggested that representatives of the future
"quintet" meet in Finland this year "to identify possible common
priorities for the purpose of better planning."

Editor’s Note: Jean-Christophe Peuch is a Vienna-based freelance
correspondent, who specializes in Caucasus- and Central Asia-related
developments.