Rupel Upbeat about OSCE after US Tour
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, the OSCE chairman-in-office, said he felt more upbeat about the future of the OSCE after he held talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on 7 March.
Rupel said his US counterpart had inspired fresh optimism in his views on the OSCE, which he said is an extremely important organisation for both Slovenia and the US, as well as for the whole world, and in our opinion Russia too. He explained that Rice had pledged steadfast support for the OSCE and urged the Slovenian chairmanship to persist with efforts aimed at finding a compromise on the open issues in the organisation. In an article published in the Washington Post, Rupel called for breaking the stalemate in the OSCE. He stressed that the OSCE played a significant role in helping peacefully end the Cold War, and that it now continues to play key roles in providing security and protecting human rights. "I sense a hardening of attitudes on all sides, and I hear rhetoric uncomfortably reminiscent of the Cold War. If the impasse continues, the OSCE's credibility and its survival will be in jeopardy," Rupel wrote. "The OSCE has achieved much on a shoestring budget. But as the only security organisation that includes the US, Canada, Russia, the whole of Europe and the former Soviet Union as equal partners, it could achieve so much more if participating states mustered the political will to let it do its job properly," the OSCE chair observed.
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