The OSCE Secretary General, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, highly appreciated the role of Kazakhstan's chairmanship in the development of the Organization's principles, saying that the idea of common
Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian space belongs to Astana's rhetoric. According to Mr Brichambaut, the summit held in the very heart of Eurasia, in Astana, is a great opportunity for European diplomats to
give Asia a closer look.
During its chairmanship, Kazakhstan has always promoted the idea of new European security concept: from now on it's not the internal affair of the continent, but is tightly connected to all global processes. This initiative was supported by Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, who proposed a project of a new European security treaty.
All European leaders are to respond to this initiative in the framework of Astana Summit. They are to discuss the possibilities of increasing the Organization's potential in the field of crisis management. This issue is urgent since the summer of 2008. All the 'frozen conflicts' are making the situation even harder to handle, and a number of reforms are needed to settle them, so that is why they are to be on the top of the summit's agenda. One of the possibilities is increasing the legal status of OSCE.
One of the top events, expected to take place during the summit, is the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents. Right now, the diplomats of the OSCE Minsk Group are doing their best to prepare the grounds for the final solution of the 20-year Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The meeting could be promising if the parties are ready to compromise.
The issue of Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenian troops is still the most controversial. The unwillingness of Armenia to free the territories also hampers the process of Armenian-Turkish progress. Baku officials say that any scheme implying Karabakh's separation is unacceptable, so a referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh doesn't sound like a solution for Azerbaijan. The OSCE Secretary General says that the only way to settle the conflict is to make both sides approach the issue from the constitutional point of view.
Kazakhstan, the host of the summit, will do its best to contribute to the peaceful solution of the conflict.
Evgeniy Krishtalev, exclusively to VK
