"Strengthening cooperative security in Asia: Five insights from the OSCE experience"
Bern, 30.05.2015 - Speech by the Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter at the security conference "Shangri-La Dialogue" in Singapore - Check against delivery
Mr Chairman
Ladies and gentlemen
Last year, Switzerland chaired the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the world’s largest regional security organisation. It was a very intensive year for the Swiss chair. As the Ukraine crisis unfolded, war and great power tensions returned to Europe. It has been a painful reminder of how fragile security in Europe still is. At the same time, as Chairman of the OSCE, I came to witness during the crisis just how useful cooperative security instruments can be to mitigate tensions and push for non-military solutions.
This year, Switzerland is chairing the Asian Partner group of the OSCE, which includes Afghanistan, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. I am actually on my way to the OSCE Asia conference in Seoul, which I will open together with my colleague from the Republic of Korea, Mr Yun Byung-se. I firmly believe that the security dialogue between Asia and Europe should be strengthened. Learning from each other’s experiences in dealing with security challenges should become a habit.
This is why I am pleased to participate in this discussion on how to avoid military competition and arms races in the Asia Pacific region. My main argument is that cooperative security can be part of the answer. Cooperative security can help ensure that the Asia-Pacific remains a global economic powerhouse and does not turn into a zone of strategic rivalry and instability.
While the OSCE as an institutional model cannot be exported to Asia, I propose that some instruments of cooperative security can make a real difference in the Asian context too. These instruments do not stand in the way of bilateral security ties or alliances. Rather, cooperative security should be regarded as an extra layer of security. It is a strategy of reassurance.
So, which insights from the OSCE experience could help strengthen cooperative security in Asia? Let me make five points:
First, cooperative security requires dialogue. You cannot build bridges and find solutions without dialogue. Dialogue that is inclusive and takes place at all levels, but especially at the highest political levels. Dialogue between all relevant agencies – also between the militaries. The most effective forms of such dialogues are platforms that provide for structured exchanges of views and are supported through a (light) secretariat.
Second, cooperative security requires transparency. Enhancing transparency is essential to reduce mutual distrust and increase predictability. The OSCE was the first organisation to develop confidence-building measures. The core of these measures concerns the military. The OSCE has, however, also developed non-military CBMs. They relate to the political, economic, environmental, and human fields of its work.
European measures cannot be simply applied to the Asian context. Still, there may be untapped potential in this region, for example for naval transparency measures such as ship visits, the notification of certain naval activities, or information about planning and procurement.
A broad spectrum of possible non-military measures also comes to mind. These include arrangements for the safety and security of shipping, marine environmental protection regimes, and marine science collaboration. Cooperative approaches to preserve good order at sea are essential as long as consensus on maritime boundaries is lacking.
This brings me to my third point: cooperative security is a vehicle to create trust. It should not be made dependent on the existence of trust. This is also to say that cooperative security is most effective when tied to a comprehensive security approach. It is about fostering trust by working together on a broad number of common challenges, such as terrorism, cyber threats, and disaster risk reduction.
One lesson to apply would be that sovereignty disputes in the Asia Pacific should not stand in the way of cooperative efforts to deal with other security-related challenges.
Another lesson I specifically take from the Ukraine crisis is that economic dividing lines can have negative security implications. Strengthening economic connectivity and fostering trade bridges rather than barriers should be a key pillar of comprehensive security.
Fourth, cooperative security can be bolstered by jointly working out common principles. Even if progress in establishing a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea may have been slow in the past, this could be a potential avenue to defuse tensions in the region.
Finally, and fifth, cooperative security gets more effective if mechanisms for crisis prevention and crisis response can be put in place. I am well aware that this is more easily said than done. In the case of the OSCE, crisis management tools could only be established at a special moment in European history, that is: after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when there was a sense of common purpose.
Still, the “early harvest measures” that ASEAN and China announced last year demonstrate that incremental steps are possible. Measures such as the establishment of a hotline platform among search and rescue agencies and a hotline among foreign ministries on maritime emergencies can promote trust and enhance security.
Ladies and gentlemen
Concerns about unilateral actions in the South China Sea have been growing lately. However, tensions have not yet reached levels where efforts to strengthen cooperative security would seem futile.
Now is the time to act. Now is the time to reassure. The multilateral schemes that have been created in the region in past years provide a basis to build upon.
Let me conclude by saying this: Switzerland is not exactly what you would call a maritime power. This is true despite the fact that the Swiss Alinghi sailing boat won the America’s Cup twice!
But while Switzerland is not a maritime power, it is a mediation power. As an impartial and credible actor, Switzerland facilitates dialogue and builds bridges in many conflicts. It is home to Geneva, Europe’s hub for peace where numerous international talks to resolve differences and prevent or resolve conflict have taken place.
Moreover, Switzerland is an economic power. We have a strong interest in regional stability and safe shipping routes in the Asia Pacific.
While Asia’s security challenges are for Asians to resolve, Switzerland stands ready to facilitate whenever its assistance should be requested.
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