Njegoskij|org :: OSCE family welcomes 56th participating State

Where am I? :: Home | Today’s Montenegro | Articles and reviews | OSCE family welcomes 56th participating State

Montenegro | OSCE

By Martin Nesirky, in OSCE Magazine, July 2006, Vienna, Austria

See online: OSCE :: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

OSCE Magazine July 2006 It’s not often ambassadors raise a glass in the Permanent Council. But then it’s not often a new country joins the OSCE [1].

The newly independent Republic of Montenegro took its seat in the OSCE’s main negotiating and decision-making body on 22 June, making its debut on the international stage as the OSCE’s 56th participating State and the first newcomer since Andorra signed up in April 1996.

There was little fanfare, but there was a genuinely warm welcome for Montenegro’s Head of Delegation, Ambassador Vesko Garčević, when the Council’s Belgian Chairman, Ambassador Bertrand de Crombrugghe, brought him into the Permanent Council chamber, passing the thick cluster of national flags that now includes Montenegro’s double-headed eagle on a rich red background.

Ambassador Garčević took his new place at the table between Monaco and Norway, and behind a temporary nameplate — such was the speed of Montenegro’s accession. Having been the Head of Delegation for the former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, he was already well known in diplomatic circles and was well acquainted with the Organization.

Ambassador Bertrand de Crombrugghe presents Montenegrin Ambassador Vesko Garčević to the Permanent Council

“Like an actor who plays two subsequent roles in the same play, I am both a newcomer and a familiar char acter,” Ambassador Garčević said before his colleagues, who toasted Montenegro with sparkling wine or juice, an unusual if not unprecedented gesture in the Permanent Council.

Montenegro’s accession followed the dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro after an independence referendum monitored by the OSCE in May, and the formal declaration of independence by the Parliament of Montenegro on 3 June.

“The new State that was born on 3 June chose the OSCE as the first organization it would join,” Ambassador de Crombrugghe told the Permanent Council. “There is no better way to express confidence in this Organization, with all the norms and principles it represents and the democratic governance it promotes.” The Montenegrin flag at OSCE

The decision by the OSCE to accept Montenegro came into effect on 21 June, following a one-week “silence procedure” to hear any objections. None came.

Serbia, as successor State of the now-dissolved union, acceded automatically to the world’s largest regional security arrangement. It had already taken up its seat in the Permanent Council under its new shorter name.

Montenegro’s Ambassador went out of his way to praise his erstwhile Serbian colleagues.

Serbia’s Chargé d’Affaires, Miroslava Beham, warmly welcomed Montenegro to the Organization.

She described how Prince Nikola of Montenegro paid a visit to King Aleksandar of Serbia in Belgrade in 1896 after years of rivalries and tensions between the two sovereign States. The Chargé d’Affaires quoted Prince Nikola as having said that the two countries’ peoples should be “striving compatriots and neighbours of other happy nations in promoting progress, development and civilization”.

Pausing for effect, the Chargé d’Affaires added: “There is nothing to add to that.”


OSCE Magazine July 2006

[1] The ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE (OSCE) traces its origins to the détente phase of the early 1970s, when the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) was created to serve as a multilateral forum for dialogue and negotiation between East and West. OSCE Meeting over two years in Helsinki and Geneva, the CSCE reached agreement on the Helsinki Final Act, which was signed on August 1st, 1975. This document contained a number of key commitments on polito-military, economic and environmental and human rights issues that became central to the so-called “Helsinki process”. It also established ten fundamental principles (the “Decalogue”) governing the behaviour of States towards their citizens, as well as towards each other.
Until 1990, the CSCE functioned mainly as a series of meetings and conferences that built on and extended the participating States’ commitments, while periodically reviewing their implementation. However, with the end of the Cold War, the Paris Summit of November 1990 set the CSCE on a new course. In the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, the CSCE was called upon to play its part in managing the historic change taking place in Europe and responding to the new challenges of the post-Cold War period, which led to its acquiring permanent institutions and operational capabilities. As part of this institutionalization process, the name was changed from the CSCE to the OSCE by a decision of the Budapest Summit of Heads of State or Government in December 1994.
With 56 participating States from Europe, Central Asia and North America, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) forms the largest regional security organization in the world. The OSCE is a primary instrument for early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation in its area. It has 19 missions or field operations in South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The Organization deals with three dimensions of security — the politico-military, the economic and environmental, and the human dimension. It therefore addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities. All 56 participating States enjoy equal status, and decisions are taken by consensus on a politically, but not legally binding basis.