Today is the 35th anniversary of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, signed by representatives from 33 European states, as well as the USA, Canada and the USSR. The Conference was assembled on the initiative of socialist states - participants in the Warsaw Pact - in an attempt to improve relations between the Communist bloc and the West.
This Act was an historic step in the process of ending the Cold war, taken in completely new political and social conditions.
In this connection, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and the Secretary of State of Kazakhstan, Kanat Saudabayev, stated that this document is as important and timely now as it was 35 years ago, RIA Novosti reports.
This act was a decisive step towards reducing international tension and created a new concept for the European security system, and this system - the OSCE - still exists, assuming the responsibility of maintaining international balance.
However, due to recent developments, all OSCE members should be ready to face new threats and circumstances. Therefore, according to Mr Saudabayev, the forthcoming summit in Astana is of immense importance.
"The Helsinki Final Act is an example of our ability and intention to work things out together and peacefully. In the present circumstances a new treaty is needed, and we should work it out according to the Helsinki principles," said Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma CIS Affairs Committee, Anatoly Korendjasev. In his opinion, the Helsinki mechanism of co-existence in Europe is mostly obsolete, as the block confrontation system no longer exists. The forthcoming OSCE Summit in Astana, where the issue of OSCE reform will be brought up, might trigger the formulation of a new basic document, as the universal principals of the old one are no longer applied universally. This new XXI century Act should take into account the changes in world politics, for example the fact that the main security threat no longer comes from European confrontation. The OSCE operations have de-facto lost their purely European character, so the Kazakh initiative of joining the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian geopolitical sectors is topical.
Talks on OSCE reform have been going on for several years, and the Astana Summit is expected to grant all the conditions for the final stage of the discussions.
The Helsinki Accords served as the groundwork for the subsequent Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, established under the Paris Charter. The OSCE is the world's largest security-oriented regional intergovernmental organization. This organization, uniting 56 states, tries to harmonize the interests of the USA, the EU and Russia.
