Monday, November 25 2013

On
1 January 2014 Switzerland
will assume OSCE Chairmanship. What priorities will the Swiss Chairmanship of
the OSCE have and what steps is Switzerland
going to take to contribute to settlement of the frozen conflicts? Would you
tell us about the Swiss Foreign Ministry’s package of new initiatives aimed at
stabilizing the situation in the South Caucasus?

 

“Creating a Security
Community for the Benefit of Everyone” – under this leitmotif, Switzerland,
during its Chairmanship, wants to contribute to three main objectives: we want
to foster security and stability, to improve people’s lives and we want to
strengthen the OSCE’s capacity to act.

 

To concretely implement
these goals, we have defined several priority activities such as combating
transnational threats, enhancing the capacity in the OSCE area for the
management of natural disasters, but also strengthening security sector
governance, the implementation of the commitments in the Human Dimension as
well as the mediation capacities of the OSCE, just to name a few. Switzerland
will also pay special attention to the inclusion of civil society into the OSCE
and wants to give young people a voice by organising an OSCE-Model series of
events.

 

Switzerland’s geographical focus will be on the Western Balkans
and the South Caucasus. Regarding the later,
we are looking into possibilities to promote dialogue and confidence building
measures, all together by actively supporting and strengthening existing mediation schemes. Furthermore, Switzerland
will further facilitate people to people contacts and support civil society projects in the region. For more
details about the Swiss priorities:http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/recent/dossie/osce.html

 

The
Federal Council has conferred on Mr. Angelo Gnädinger the title of ambassador
in view of his upcoming post of Special Representative for the South Caucasus under the Swiss Chairmanship of the OSCE. What powers will he have?

 

Ambassador Gnädinger will
take up the post of Special Representative on 1 January 2014, upon Switzerland's
assumption of the OSCE chairmanship. Among other responsibilities, he 
will represent the OSCE in the Geneva Discussions on security and stability in
the South Caucasus.  As previous Special
Representatives for the South Caucasus, he
will support the OSCE's mediation efforts in the region in 2014 and will
accompany the activities of the OSCE representations in the region. From
2002 to 2010, Ambassador Gnädinger was the director-general of the ICRC. He has
many years of experience in dealing with conflicts, political mediation and
international law.

 

Turkish
media outlets report that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has asked for
Switzerland’s support in the
Karabakh peace process so that Turkey
could normalize relations with Yerevan.
How reliable is this information and what is Switzerland going to do?    

 

Facilitating dialogue among
the parties involved in the protracted conflicts of the South
Caucasus is a priority of the Swiss Chairmanship. Switzerland
will try to contribute to a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict without questioning the established formats such as the OSCE Minsk
process. During its Chairmanship, Switzerland
hopes to build upon its previous and current engagement in the South Caucasus.

 

In the last few months,
Federal Councilor Didier Burkhalter presented the priorities of the Swiss
Chairmanship to many high-ranking representatives of OSCE participating states
– among others, to H.E. Mr Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Turkey, during an official visit on 10 October 2013 in Berne.

 

Armenia
and Switzerland are closely cooperating in the field of defense, particularly,
within the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and
under the Swiss project Capacity Building in International Relations (CABIR). What tangible results can you talk about today?

 

The Geneva Centre for the
Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) was established in 2000 by initiative
of the Swiss Government. This centre is an international foundation with the
mission to assist the international community in pursuing good governance and
reform of the security sector. DCAF cooperates closely with the OSCE Office in Yerevan on democratic
governance, law enforcement and defence reform issues.



The cooperation with the parliamentary committee on defence and security, based
on an MoU signed at the end of 2012, and supported by the OSCE Office in
Yerevan, has enabled the project partners to hold international seminars,
parliamentary hearings and capacity-building activities in the fields of best
practices in parliamentary oversight and guidance, defence management, human
rights in the security sector, and defence and police reform. In parallel a
review of the security sector legislation and parliamentary powers was
undertaken which will shortly be discussed in parliament, along with best
practices for terms of reference for parliamentary visits to defence sites.
Good progress has already been made in reforming the curriculum of the Military Academy. DCAF has further offered a
number of capacity-building activities at different levels of defence
management.



DCAF’s local partners in Armenia
are the Ministry of Defence, the National Assembly, and, more recently, the RA
Police. Over the last years, Armenia,
along with Georgia and Azerbaijan, has
been the focus of DCAF cooperation with the OSCE and the Partnership for Peace
on the issue of Human Rights in the Armed Forces and Integrity-Building in
Defence Management.

The Capacity Building
in International Relations (CABIR) programme is another key element of Swiss
cooperation in the region. Switzerland
is committed to continue the project in the three countries of the South Caucasus. The project is financed by the Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and has been implemented for the
last consecutive twelve years by the Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies in Geneva.
It has managed to contribute to a large extent to the capacity building of the
young government officials in the three countries. So far, around 450 persons
were trained (140 from Armenia
and Azerbaijan respectively,
and 170 from Georgia).

 

The project represents a
good example of Switzerland’s
long-standing cooperation with the governments of Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan. It
has contributed to the strengthening of the countries’ governance for their
effective representation at the regional and international arena as well as
strived to increase accountability and transparency in the management of public
affairs. The courses have been held in such topics as International Law,
International Economics and Negotiation Techniques, International Trade Policy,
International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

 

We still see a strong need
for such trainings in the three countries. In the project’s next phase,
emphasis will be given on training trainers for continuous education of public
servants in the three countries. The topics of training will be jointly defined
with the three partner governments. A strong network twinning the best academic
and training institutions in Switzerland
and the three South Caucasus countries will
provide the foundation for this cooperation.

 

The key element of the
future project, which in the long run will ensure its sustainability, will be
local ownership and commitment: by the governments and training institutions of
the target countries’ as well as their active participation and contribution to
the project.