Kazakhstan, Astana, Dec. 1 / corr Trend A.Maratov /
Substantial structural changes must be made to the OSCE's development to respond to contemporary challenges and threats, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Dec. 1 while addressing the OSCE summit in Astana.
"We offer to expand the number of OSCE 'baskets' and institutes," he said. "First comes economic pragmatism, which is the cornerstone of the 21st century's security system. In this respect, the EU's efforts to stabilize the economy deserve support."
He noted that the G8 and G20 have discussed overcoming the global financial crisis. But the search for a new configuration of the global economy and currency system moves slowly, the president said. He concluded that the OSCE must strengthen its efforts to ensure economic security, while keeping financial and economical security in a separate "basket."
"The global economy needs a currency of a new quality in its world reserve," Nazarbayev said. "This issue deserves special importance. We also offer to supplement the OSCE's Maastricht strategy with a 'Maastricht plus' document. This may include the principles of a coordinated monetary policy, economic cooperation and integration."
Second, it is important to continue developing new treaty standards in disarmament and non-proliferation, the president said.
"To make it effective, we must establish an OSCE special forum," he said. "Kazakhstan offers to form the council on the level of OSCE member state ministers, who will coordinate the struggle with transborder crime, drug trafficking and illegal migration."
Nazarbayev's third proposal concerned various problems within different countries.
"Today 'cracks' in confidence in the OSCE area are being seen in different countries," he said. "Afterward, they negatively affect the regional and global situation. Such appearances include attempts at public mockery of religious sacred places. U.S. President Barack Obama's Cairo speech outlining the U.S. position on strengthening religious tolerance is noteworthy and the OSCE must continue with concrete steps."
Fourth, the global financial crisis, local conflicts and other challenges that astounded the world recently were very unexpected.
"This means that the 'optical system' for viewing the future turned out to be faulty," he said. "I believe that it would be useful to set up work at the OSCE to forecast different security problems as a separate measurement. As a first step, I offer establishing the OSCE Security Institute, which could be located in Astana."
The Kazakh leader's fifth proposal implied strengthening confidence and understanding to promote the balanced basing of OSCE agencies throughout its zone of responsibility.
"The process can be launched by establishing new institutes for currency and financial, interregional and analytical forecasting measurements in different countries, including the Asian part of the OSCE," he said. "We offer to discuss these proposals within the 'Corfu process.' I hope all of the directions of the OSCE's fundamental measurements will be reflected in the OSCE Astana declaration."