The need for peaceful settlements to long drawn-out conflicts has been a recurring theme at the opening of the OSCE summit in Astana.
Leaders of the USA, France and Russia, as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, restated their vision for a settlement.
"Efforts should be resumed on a resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of the main principles set out by the Minsk Group," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared at the opening of the summit.
She restated the US position that a resolution of the conflict should be based on the Helsinki principles and the principles declared by the heads of the Minsk Group co-chairing states in at the G8 summit in L'Aquila on 10 July 2009 and confirmed in Muskoka this year.
“It is impossible to choose one out of all these principles, since this will not promote settlement of the Karabakh conflict," Hillary Clinton said.
The basic principles for a settlement of the conflict include Armenia's return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, an interim status for Karabakh providing guarantees of security and self-governance, and the future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon echoed Hillary Clinton's remarks, saying that the sides could not pick and choose from the basic principles for a settlement.
“And lastly, as co-chair of the Minsk Group, France is determined to assist in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to which there can only be a balanced and negotiated political solution, on the basis, among other elements, of the proposals jointly articulated by presidents Sarkozy, Medvedev and Obama in L’Aquila and Muskoka. These proposals are to be considered as an integrated whole,” the French prime minister said.
Addressing the summit, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev said that "military solutions to conflicts such as the one in Georgia are inadmissible”.
Protracted conflicts
Addressing the summit, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said that the " OSCE should act not only in conflict prevention, but also in resolving existing ones”.
"Unresolved protracted conflicts can become hopeless which we must not allow to happen," Van Rompuy said.
"The European Union supports the resumption of talks on Transdniestria, considers the Minsk Group format the best option for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and supports the restoration of the OSCE presence in Georgia."
Van Rompuy said that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's initiative on a European security concept would play a major role.
The OSCE chairman-in-office, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, expressed cautious optimism about protracted conflicts in his address to the summit opening.
He called for consensus to be reached "on all important issues from Vancouver to Vladivostok".
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the OSCE could rely on the United Nations in working to resolve conflicts and said that women and young people should be more involved in conflict resolution.
The president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Petros Efthymiou, andOSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut both noted the importance of the OSCE in resolving conflict.
Addressing the summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel referred directly to the Karabakh conflict.
"The progress in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be continued in future," she said.
In his speech Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych stressed the importance of peaceful solutions to protracted conflicts: “Frozen conflicts must be resolved on the basis of international law, first of all on the basis of the principles of countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries.”
OSCE reform
Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev again raised Moscow's desire for reform of the OSCE in his address to the summit.
"What's most important may be drawing up single principles for the resolution of conflicts. And they should be followed in all crises and not just in select instances."
"Russia consistently supports breathing new life into the Helsinki principles and putting them into practice. The OSCE - its style and format - needs to be modernized in order to achieve this. The organization really has begun to lose its potential - this has to be said directly."
He recalled that Russia and its partners had submitted a draft statute for the OSCE and proposals to revise its structure.
"I am convinced that, relying on the security platform based on cooperation, the organization is capable of becoming a moving force in the development of collaboration among NATO, the European Union, Council of Europe, CIS and Collective Security Treaty. All the member countries of these organizations are in the OSCE. In this respect the OSCE is a universal space."
APA, Khabar, NEWS.am, 1news.az
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