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 weakened the
OSCE, deprived it of orientation 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 Spanish presidency called on Russia to reconsider its decision to
abandon a key arms control treaty, while the US and the European
Union (EU) continued bickering with Moscow over the role of OSCE
election monitors.
The organization did, however, reach agreements on launching a new
mission to ensure frontier security in Afghanistan, on its future
chairmanship and on raising its profile in the fight against
terrorism.
More than 40 foreign ministers as well as lower-level
representatives from 56 OSCE countries attended the two-day meeting
in the Spanish capital.
The OSCE will establish a mission in Afghanistan to reinforce
border security in an attempt to prevent drug trafficking, crime and
insecurity from spilling over into neighbouring countries, US Under
Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said.
The OSCE also agreed on its chairmanship after Spain passes it
over to Finland in 2008. Finland will be followed by Greece,
Kazakhstan and Lithuania.
Washington gave its backing to the Russian-backed Kazakh bid after
Astana pledged to protect the rights of the OSCE's election
monitoring body, allowing the US to downplay earlier doubts about
Kazakhstan's democratic credentials.
Disagreements between Washington and Moscow nevertheless
overshadowed the meeting, with Burns criticizing Russia for
suspending participation in the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe
(CFE) treaty. President Vladimir Putin signed the suspension on
Friday.
It was the 'a major mistake' for Russia to 'unilaterally walk out'
of the most important arms control treaty in the past two decades,
Burns said.
Washington and its allies within the OSCE had made vain attempts
to persuade Moscow to backtrack on its decision to scrap the CFE over
US plans for a defence shield in eastern Europe and NATO's failure to
ratify a 1999 new version of the treaty.
Burns also accused Russia, Uzbekistan and Belarus of 'attacking'
the OSCE election monitoring body ODIHR.
The organ is boycotting Sunday's parliamentary elections in
Russia, citing difficulties in obtaining visas for observers and
other obstacles.
The US rejected a Russian proposal to modify the mandate of ODIHR
for instance by prohibiting election observers from making instant
comments after polls.
The US accuses Russia of trying to undermine democracy at the
OSCE, while Moscow says it wants to make the organization more
egalitarian.
Moscow suspects the West of focusing on democracy and human rights
issues at the OSCE in order to push for Western political interests
in former Soviet states.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov painted a pessimistic
picture of the state of the OSCE, saying the organization was in a
'serious crisis' after failing to adopt reforms such as a charter
clarifying its tasks.
He accused the West of promoting 'group interests' and of applying
'double standards' to different countries.
The OSCE postponed a decision on the future of its 1,000-strong
mission in Kosovo, where its largest field presence is tasked with
protecting the Serb minority and with training police.
Russia does not want the OSCE to stay in Kosovo if the province
becomes independent from Serbia against the will of Belgrade, a
Moscow ally.
The US and its European allies would like to extend the
OSCE mandate in Kosovo after it expires at the end of the year
regardless of the status of the region.
The OSCE, which grew out of a predecessor founded in 1975 during
the Cold War, comprises countries from Europe, Central Asia and the
Americas.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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