"Weakening" OSCE fails to approve declaration in Madrid (3rd Lead)

Europe News

Nov 30, 2007, 17:06 GMT

Madrid - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) failed to approve a joint political declaration Friday at an annual meeting marked by a deepening rift between the United States and Russia. The failure to approve joint declarations since 2002 has weakened the OSCE politically, 'deprived' it of 'orientation,' 'diminished the perception of our achievements' and made it less efficient, the Spanish presidency of the human rights and security watchdog said in its own final document. The OSCE postponed a decision on the future of its Kosovo mission. The United States and its Western allies failed to persuade Russia to backtrack on its decision to abandon a key arms control treaty. The OSCE did however reach agreements on launching a new mission to ensure frontier security in Afghanistan, on its future chairmanship and on stepping up the fight against terrorism. More than 40 ministers, as well as lower-level representatives, from 56 OSCE countries attended the two-day meeting in the Spanish capital. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Talkback

There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment! (no registration required)

Europe

"Weakening" OSCE fails to approve declaration in Madrid (3rd Lead)

Europe News

Talkback

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in Europe

Latest Articles on The Tech Herald

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print