Astana, 2 December 2010 – In his speech at the OSCE summit in Astana today, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip stated that the organisation must continue to focus its efforts on preventing and resolving conflicts and promoting democracy in its region.
Ansip referred to the need to find rapid and definitive solutions to the stand-offs in the geographical area which the OSCE covers.
“We have to find peaceful solutions to the conflicts in Georgia, Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said. “Their victims are looking to us to do something today, not tomorrow.”
Ansip reiterated his support for Georgia’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The international community must keep insisting that the OSCE be permitted to operate throughout Georgia,” he said.
The prime minister also raised the issue of the role of journalistic freedom of speech in society, expressing his concern regarding cases of the harassment of journalists.
“Estonia is very concerned about attacks against journalists, which we’re hearing about on an almost daily basis,” he said. “It can’t go on unpunished.”
He added that the spread of free information must be guaranteed, irrespective of how it is achieved – whether electronically or via traditional media channels.
In conclusion, Prime Minister Ansip said that the OSCE’s broad-ranging approach to security makes it the right organisation to deal with threats emanating from cyberspace.
“Estonia will continue to do everything it can to identify the threats posed in the cyber world,” he promised. “A number of events related to cyber-security have already taken place within the organisation. Now it’s important that we take the next step and draw up a strategic document for this highly complex field.”
The Astana summit brought together senior politicians from the 56 Member States of the OSCE. Discussing the vision of a unified Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security space with them were UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Council of Europe president Herman Van Rompuy and Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
The Astana summit was the 7th to be held in the organisation’s history. The last summit was held in Istanbul in 1999.
More information is available about the OSCE on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at http://www.vm.ee/?q=taxonomy/term/254