Statement in Response to the Chairs of the Three Committees delivered by Ambassador Arman Kirakossian at the 1039th Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council

12 February, 2015

February 12, 2015

Mr. Chairperson,

We would like to warmly welcome Ambassadors Cristian Istrate and Tomislav Leko and congratulate them on assuming of the challenging mission of chairing the Security and Economic and Environmental Committees. We would like also to congratulate Ambassador Robert Kvile on his reappointment as the Chairperson of the Human Dimension Committee. We pledge our full support to the Chairs.

Armenia fully supports the priorities that both Chairmanship and the new Chair of the Security Committee outlined in their presentation in relation to the work of the Security Committee.

We highly value the intention of both chairmanships to keep particular focus on the topic of combating foreign terrorist fighters, as well as violent extremism and radicalization that leads to terrorism. Our commitments were strengthened by adoption of the landmark MC Declaration 5/14 through which the OSCE participating states committed themselves to full implementation of the UN SC Resolutions 2170 and 2178. We need to use the momentum to further advance cooperation within the OSCE on practical implementation of the Declaration particularly with regard the entities which appear in relevant Security Council Resolutions, namely ISIL, ANF and other derivatives and affiliates of Al-Qaida. In this respect, it is equally important to engage our Partners in line with the Basel MC Declarations 9/14 and 10/14.

We appreciate the intention of the chairmanship to keep in focus the topic of SSR/G and organize a follow-up event to last year’s UN-OSCE Conference on this topic. Similarly, we support the intention of the CiO to discuss the TNT perspectives from cross- dimensional angle, particularly in relation to the organized crime.

My delegation strongly supports the implementation of initial set of CBMs to reduce the risk of conflict stemming from the use of information and communication technologies. We are looking forward to discuss the second set of practical and cooperative confidence and security building measures.

As for the second dimension, we reiterate our support to the Chairmanship’s priorities. Water governance has important security link and joint management of shared water resources, such as cross-border rivers and water reservoirs for mutual benefit can serve to strengthening confidence and regional cooperation. We believe the OSCE is well placed to address issues of managing cross-border rivers in the situations of the absence of bilateral relations. Engagement of civil society and its instruments, such as network of Aarhus Centres and ENVSEC, is useful for implementing our commitments on the ground.

We are also looking forward for interesting discussions on the topic of good governance. We attach utmost importance to strengthening of OSCE commitments in the sphere of combating corruption. Adoption of MC decision on prevention of corruption in Basel was an important step in this regard, which built upon the Dublin Declaration on Good Governance and other OSCE relevant commitments. The Basel Decision reflected the cross-dimensional aspect of combating corruption, which requires close involvement of the civil society and media. The OSCE commitments, in particular these two documents should be our points of departure in preparation of Second Committee report. We will actively engage in the activities of the Group of Friends on Anti-Corruption.

We support the priorities and thematic choice of the Human Dimension Committee work plan. Armenia advocates full and unreserved implementation of human dimension commitments by all the participating states. We generally share the Serbian Chairmanship’s human dimension priorities and believe that the programme of the Human Dimension Committee offered by Ambassador Kvile reflects these priorities.

Our organization has valuable tools at its disposal to pursue its human dimension agenda and assist the participating states in implementation of its human dimension agenda, namely the OSCE institutions and the field missions. The institutions are indispensable part of the third dimension and their professional, objective and cooperative performance is the driving force that can promote realization of common goals of participating states through joint efforts. We would like to reiterate our view, that OSCE institutions should have unrestricted access elsewhere in the OSCE area and should assist all stakeholders in the OSCE.

In conclusion, we would like to wish the distinguished Chairs all success in their endeavours.

Thank You.

MFA RA
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