I requested the floor to convey the Lithuanian perspective both on the general issue of model cooperation between the UN and a regional arrangement, and specifically as an issue for us as a European state.
But first I would like to highly commend the contribution of Norway as the out-going Chairman-in-office of the OSCE, and especially the outstanding record of the Norvegian Foreign Minister H.E. Knut Vollebaek. Lithuania welcomes the incoming chairmanship of Austria, which will steer this unique regional organization through the junction of centuries onwards.
We welcome today's presence of Mr. Jan Kubið, the Secretary-General of the OSCE. European states also owe special gratitude to his predecessor, Mr. Giancarlo Aragona, for the efficient management of the organization.
Regional bodies are often better equipped to take on regional issues than global organizations. Without prejudice to relevant legal norms such as the mandate of the UN Security Council, advantages of "intimacy" to a region must be heeded when selecting an instrument from international institutions for action in regions.
Europe is endowed with numerous establishments of various types, mandates, expertise and membership. Reliance on them, including the OSCE, in upholding universal values on the Continent has been productive. The Charter for European Security adopted in the recent Istanbul Summit acknowledges that "the risks and challenges we face today cannot be met by single State or organization". That is true for Europe and worldwide. European organizations perform skillfully in the fields of their comparative advantage in Balkans, Caucasus or Central Asia. Lithuanian nationals who participated in many multilateral projects around Europe witnessed successful inter-institutional cooperation. The UN Secretary-General's report (A/54/537) demonstrates that the Chapter VIII of the UN Charter is understood and practiced wisely and efficiently.
The OSCE is a strong and reliable pillar of the United Nations in Europe. The organization submits its assistance to uphold universal values and principles through its Platform for Co-operative security, which is also a flexible framework for a non-hierarchical interaction between OSCE and other European organizations.
The Istanbul Summit has born a meaningful outcome. It was overshadowed by developments in Northern Caucasus, and they are indeed unfortunate. OSCE member-states, including the Russian Federation, have agreed that a political solution on Chechnya is essential, and that OSCE would contribute towards that goal. We hope for a renewal of political dialogue with the help of the OSCE Assistance Group in Chechnya and expect results from the visit of the Chairman-in-Office to the region. In the background of these difficult events, however, fundamental developments and real achievements in the OSCE's role in Europe should not be overlooked.
The newly adopted Charter on European Security is not only now the model of the European security and stability for the next century. This document is also very progressive in its substance and strong with 54 signatures from a vast array of the member-states.
Although negotiations on the Charter preceded new trends in international relations that have surfaced in the last year of this century, its adoption coincided with the major wave that swept around the world and over state borders. The Charter affirms what was said by the UN Secretary General and many delegations here, in the UN, namely, that certain issues previously considered unquestionably the states' prerogatives, now fall within a wider purview - that of everyone. The Charter will help the OSCE to be a modern organization able to meet challenges with a new philosophy and good tools. Being a regional product but primarily comprised of universal principles, the Charter on European Security is potentially marketable in other regions and continents.
The UN and the OSCE, whose security dimension is based on confidence-building policies of conventional arms control, transparency in armaments and information sharing, can complement one another in response to security challenges. The degree of cooperation within the OSCE in the sphere of arms and weapons transparency, now improved through the updated Vienna Document, can be exemplary to the United Nations, and through the UN, to other regions of the world. The decision to launch a comprehensive discussion within the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation on the issue of small arms and light weapons is concurrent with the preparation for 2001 UN conference on small arms and light weapons. So is the decision of the OSCE to fight the tragedy of children in armed conflicts with its own measures. Yet another very significant development is the decision of the Istanbul Summit to develop operational capacities of the OSCE to prevent conflicts.
Although a product of Cold War, the CFE Treaty has retained is relevance in today's Europe, especially by breaking up weapons limitation from blocks to individual states. Adaptation of the Treaty and its opening for accession by other OSCE states was accompanied by commitments of a number of Central and Eastern European states to irreversibly set reasonable ceilings for their own conventional forces. This was a particularly welcome development in the neighborhood of my country. The updated CFE Treaty is the kind of instrument that would maintain balance in other volatile regions of the planet where the cold and hot wars still flare.
Through many documents of the OSCE Human Dimension signed on the highest level, beginning with the Helsinki Document '75, Europeans are bound by advanced and still developing standards of democracy, rule of law and human rights. The OSCE is a living organization wherein stricter standards, new norms and stronger enforcement mechanisms are being devised.
We salute the cooperation in the Human Dimension between a number of international organizations in Europe and beyond it, such as the regular exchange of information and joint actions between the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe and NATO. Kosovo will be a case in point for a long time. Cooperation between multilateral institutions beyond their deliberative chambers and the ability to prove complementarity in the field is especially meaningful. The parallel share of work and responsibility in the field between the two organizations and their internal and affiliated institutions such as UNHCR, UNDP, OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and High Commissioner for National Minorities, especially in the countries of Caucasus, former Yugoslavia and Central Asia, reveal an orderly and full-fledged cooperation rather than mere paper-work or random movements in hot spots. We strongly encourage this development.
Unique in their own way, the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe together make a mutually complementary part of multilateral instruments for contacts among the peoples in Europe and around the world. We ought to make the best use of these potent tools. We are convinced that the resolution, which Norway intends to introduce, will invite us to do precisely that and will deserve a consensus approval.
Thank you, Mr. President.
PERMANENT MISSION OF LITHUANIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
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