Munich Security Conference: Didier Burkhalter rates OSCE as a major actor for rebuilding trust in Europe
Bern, 18.02.2017 - At the Munich Security Conference last Saturday, Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter expressed the view that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) now more than ever had a key role to play in strengthening security in Europe. The head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) called on members of the OSCE to advance common action to reduce uncertainty and rebuild trust through a structured dialogue within the framework of the OSCE.
Mr Burkhalter said that the Ukraine crisis, which erupted three years ago, has eroded the Western-Russian partnership and has negatively affected essential security instruments such as conventional arms control in Europe. At a meeting with his OSCE counterparts convened by the Austrian Chairmanship of the OSCE on the margins of the conference, he stressed that recent uncertainties linked to the intentions of the new US administration and the future of US-Russian relations, as well as the consequences of Brexit and the outcome of elections in a number of European countries this year have not only made European security policy more uncertain but also more complex.
He went on to say that strengthening the OSCE as a platform for discussion and as an instrument for common action was one of Switzerland’s foreign policy priorities. He noted that the OSCE had already made progress in this regard, in particular by placing conventional arms control back on the political agenda and by relaunching, at the ministerial meeting in Hamburg last December, the discussion on current and future challenges and risks for security in the OSCE zone.
Mr Burkhalter also declared that Switzerland would provide its expertise and ideas to support the efforts of the Austrian Chairmanship to continue this dialogue on security this year. He reminded his audience that the question of conventional arms control should be part of these discussions and stressed that cyber security and combating terrorism and violent extremism would be issues of interest to all OSCE participating states. He concluded his speech by saying that strengthening cooperation to find solutions to common challenges would help rebuild trust.
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