Helsinki+40 Forum Underway to Review Effectiveness of Int'l Organizations

© Photo : OSCE/Mikhail EvstafievThe Helsinki +40 Working Group declaration, signed in December 2013 in Kiev by the foreign ministers of the OSCE member-countries, included Russia.
The Helsinki +40 Working Group declaration, signed in December 2013 in Kiev by the foreign ministers of the OSCE member-countries, included Russia. - Sputnik International
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The Helsinki +40 Working Group declaration, signed in December 2013 in Kiev by the foreign ministers of the OSCE member-countries, included Russia. Its purpose is to improve the effectiveness of the international forum and its credibility within the organization.

MOSCOW, November 26 (Sputnik) – Discussions at the "Helsinki +40" Working Group forum to strengthen the ability of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other international organizations to tackle security challenges are underway, Deputy of the State Duma, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Vasiliy Likhachev reported Wednesday.

The Helsinki +40 Working Group declaration, signed in December 2013 in Kiev by the foreign ministers of the OSCE member-countries, included Russia. Its purpose is to improve the effectiveness of the international forum and its credibility within the organization.

"The new edition of the [Helsinki +40], as it is now called, is really being discussed at different levels of government. The project’s relevance is due to many factors, including the fact that the current agenda of international issues, according to the United Nations, is not fully carried out. We see that on the way to finding solutions to serious problems (terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation)[,] subjective factors arise, including such phenomena as Russophobia and other phobias," Likhachev was quoted as saying by Izvestia.

In such a way the EU begins to test the ground of Russian diplomacy concerning the exit towards "certain joint revision of European security," the lawmaker told the newspaper.

"On December 4 – 5, the [21st] OSCE Ministerial Council will be held in Basel [Switzerland]. That is the venue where this idea [the signing of the new agreement on security and cooperation in Europe] might acquire a specific shape. It is now being discussed within the OSCE," Vladimir Chizhov, Permanent Representative of Russia to the EU told Izvestia.

The diplomat emphasized the importance for all 57 participating OSCE member-countries to act as independent states on the principles of equality, respect for sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs, the newspaper stated.

After the draft conclusion in December 2013, talks on the Helsinki +40 had been suspended for an indefinite period, due to a sharp deterioration in Russia's relations with the EU and the US following the crisis in Ukraine, Izvestia pointed out.

In 2015 the OSCE marks the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act 1975. The document helped to establish an East-West dialogue on security during Cold War tensions.

The accord, signed by 35 nations, concluded the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, held in Helsinki, Finland in 1975. The non-binding accord was the first major attempt to improve relations between the West and the former Communist bloc countries and adopted several core principles of relations among states: sovereign equality, respect for the rights inherent in sovereignty, refraining from the threat or use of force and inviolability of frontiers, among them.

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