*[Enwl-eng] GOOD NEWS - New OSCE Summit 2025
ENWLine
Dear friends of peace in the Nordic and all Baltic Sea countries
We are extremely happy to inform you that the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, works really hard on calling together a new OSCE summit 2025, an idea which we supported in our letter to decision makers and the OSCE secretariat and delegations in June.
At the end of this mail you will find excerpts from today's (26.8.2021) newspaper “Hufvudstadsbladet” (daily newspaper published in Swedish since about 5 % of the Finnish population is Swedish speaking) (article in Swedish here: https://www.hbl.fi/artikel/helsingforsandan-drivs-pa-i-aktiv-utrikespolitik/)
The whole speech of Niinistö in English: https://www.presidentti.fi/en/speeches/speech-by-president-of-the-republic-of-finland-sauli-niinisto-at-the-ambassadors-conference-on-24-august-2021/
Any ideas are welcome!
Take care – stay strong!
Ulla Klötzer – Women for Peace, Women Against Nuclear Power - Finland
Hufvudstadsbladet 26.8.2021:
The spirit of Helsinki is being pursued in active foreign policy
President Sauli Niinistö is working intensively to ensure that Helsinki hosts a major summit during the OSCE conference's anniversary year 2025. The Helsinki spirit from the 1975 conference is emphasized as a recipe for bringing the parties closer together in today's multilateral world. …
It was in March that President Sauli Niinistö in a column in Helsingin Sanomat first suggested that the 50th anniversary of the OSCE conference in Helsinki should be celebrated with a summit of heads of state in 2025. …
At the Ambassadors’ Conference (Helsinki) earlier this week, he returned to the issue and devoted a central part of his speech to the idea of a summit in 2025 and the importance of a resurrected Helsinki spirit. After decades of disagreement and tensions - Hungary in 1956, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 - a constructive dialogue was launched with the aim of creating at least a minimum of trust and policy of detente. …
In his speech at the Ambassadors’ Conference, he built on his previous hope for a broad summit in Helsinki in four years. He sees it as natural that Finland should also shoulder the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) during the anniversary year. Niinistö indicated that the issue will be raised later this week when OSCE Secretary-General Helga Maria Schmid visits Helsinki.
According to the President, there is a great need to reaffirm the Helsinki Principles of 1975 and to restore the functioning of the entire organization. The final declaration from Helsinki contains, among other things, formulations on sovereign equality, inviolability of borders, peaceful resolution of disagreements, cooperation between states and respect for human rights.
The need for real dialogue, even across bloc borders, is necessary. A certain amount of trust should be built up regardless of how frosty some relationships right now seem to be.
Niinistö claims to have probed the terrain regarding a Helsinki meeting and received encouraging reactions from various headquarters, including central places such as Berlin, Moscow, Washington and Beijing. Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto (Green Party) has also promoted the President's thoughts in his contacts with Foreign Minister colleagues.
Finland will achieve and has at the moment other visible roles in international politics. In October, Finland is likely to be elected a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the next three years, and this is a platform that should be taken into account. This autumn, Finland will also begin a two-year presidency of the Barents Council at the same time chairing the last months of the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
At the same time, the Finnish government wants to see the EU as a major power factor and expresses concern about the anonymous and withdrawn role of EU in today's world - most recently in connection with the events in Afghanistan. At the Ambassadors’ Conference, this was an issue in several speeches. President Niinistö stated that he has long been concerned about how Europe has lost ground compared to other centers of power. According to him, more power, unity, determination and commitment in a jointly chosen line are required. Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP), the one who really has the EU issues on her table, also said that we need to work consistently for a more active Europe, independent of the political economic fluctuations in other states, and that power of action goes hand in hand with greater European responsibility. …
------------- * ENWL * ------------
Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia
Independent Environmental Net Service
Russian: ENWL (North West), ENWL-inf (FSU), ENWL-misc (any topics)
English: ENWL-eng (world information)
Send information to en...@lew.spb.org, enwl...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org
Subscription,Moderator:vf...@lew.spb.org
Archive: http://groups.google.com/group/enwl/
New digests see on https://ecodelo.org
Additionally: http://www.enwl.net.ru/
(C) Please refer to exclusive articles of ENWL
-------------------------------------