*Address by Prime Minister Edi Rama to the United Nations Security Council to priority outline for the Albanian OSCE Chairmanship.

Mr. President,

Members of the Security Council,

Excellencies,

Honourable colleagues!

I am very honoured to address this distinguished Council in my capacity as Chairperson-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

This opportunity for an exchange of views on contemporary security challenges has become a valuable tradition and is an expression of the excellent cooperation between our organizations. The UN and the OSCE are natural partners. As the world’s largest regional security organization under Chapter Eight of the UN Charter, the OSCE is an important pillar of the international rules-based order. Our work directly supports the implementation of the global UN mandate and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Since 1993, a structured framework has guided our cooperation, reinforced by a joint statement in December last year. During 2020, it is my resolve as OSCE Chairperson to maximize our practical cooperation. Together, we can address key challenges to international peace and security, and promote respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.

For Albania, assuming the Chairmanship of the OSCE is a momentous event, marking a step up in our international leadership. While at the helm of the OSCE, Albania’s strategic goal will be to defend multilateralism, at a time where we feel that it is under attack. This is the key reason that prompted us to chair the OSCE and that inspires our bid to sit, in the future, in this distinguished Council.

Allow me now describe you what we intend to do. The action of the Albanian Chairmanship will revolve around three main priorities.

Number one: making a difference on the ground. The OSCE has proven time and again that it can deploy in challenging conflict and post-conflict settings. We will promote the work of our Organization where it is closest to our people. Thus, conflict resolution efforts are at the top of our agenda.

The crisis in and around Ukraine remains the most pressing security challenge in Europe today. So the unique contribution given by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to reducing tensions and fostering peace, is essential. Two weeks ago I made my first visit in this new capacity to Ukraine. I met President Zelensky and the entire Ukrainian leadership. I assured my counterparts of our determination and dedication to do our part to advance peace efforts, urging respect for OSCE principles and commitments and full implementation of the Minsk agreements. We will also support efforts in the Trilateral Contact Group and the Normandy format. The resumption of dialogue in this format and outcomes of the Normandy summit are steps in the right direction.

Still, there continues to be civilian casualties and loss of life and we need to ensure primarily a full and sustainable ceasefire. In my meetings in Ukraine, what I heard was a request for further OSCE monitoring in eastern Ukraine, in the framework of the mandate of the SMM. We will support the SMM in fully implementing its mandate. While travelling to the contact line, I had the opportunity to observe the practical impact of our flagship operation on the ground. Operating in a challenging and volatile environment, the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission offers an essential contribution towards peace.

However, for that to continue happening there is a need to ensure safe and secure access for its staff on the ground. That requires political will by the sides and I will not stop calling for it. Political will is indeed key to peace, and I could see with my own eyes how the repaired and reopened bridge in Stanytsia Luhanska is relieving the hardship of those living across the contact line, and how the security and humanitarian aspects of the conflict go hand in hand. Such positive steps need to be replicated and multiplied.

Yet the OSCE conflict resolution efforts are broader. During our Chairmanship we are supporting also the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Last week talks in Geneva saw the exploration of possible next steps to prepare populations for peace, as well as discussion of the principles and elements that could form the basis of a future settlement in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Looking to Georgia, together with the United Nations and the European Union, the OSCE is also a Co-Chair of the Geneva International Discussions, where we keep de-escalation and dialogue at the top of the agenda.

While almost 12 years have passed since the conflict, people on the ground are still affected by security and humanitarian challenges, including restrictions on freedom of movement.

The Chairmanship also supports the Transdniestrian Settlement Process and stands by the result-oriented approach to the 5+2 talks to promote progress.

Confidence building measures in the economic, social, educational or health fields bring populations on both banks closer together and ease their daily lives.

Eventually, they will contribute to the comprehensive settlement based on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova within its internationally recognized borders with a special status for Transdniestria.

Across the OSCE region, our Organisation also plays a key role in early warning and along all phases of the conflict cycle in particular thanks to the network of the field operations. Their action is crucial to prevent the re-emergence of conflicts and to strengthen institutions. Women continue to be disproportionally affected by conflicts in the OSCE area and of course across the world. They are also unjustly excluded from peace efforts.

Inspired by the 20th anniversary of the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, Albania will inject new momentum in the promotion of the role of women in peace processes. I know first-hand in my own Government how effective the contribution of women leaders is, and I hope that this dossier will be one of enhanced cooperation between the UN and the OSCE.

Other opportunities for reinforced mutual efforts will be on countering violent extremism and terrorism, building on the excellent cooperation with the UN Office of Counter Terrorism, and addressing transnational organised crime, in cooperation with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Albania’s second priority is implementing our commitments. The instruments and institutions of the OSCE are essential safeguards for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Indeed, their impact reaches beyond our region and benefits the broader international community. Promoting freedom of expression and freedom of the media, safeguarding the rights of national minorities and combating violence against women are our immediate, urgent priorities.

Advancing good governance is another challenge of our times. Corruption erodes the very foundations of our societies and is a major threat to stability and prosperity. Therefore, Albania will promote OSCE’s efforts in combating this phenomenon and host a high-level conference on anti-corruption in Tirana.

Combating trafficking in human beings is another area where the OSCE is becoming a global player. As co-chairs of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group Against Trafficking in Persons, we will maximize our action in partnership with the UN, marking 20 years since the adoption of the Palermo Protocols.

Since its creation, the OSCE has developed remarkable expertise on arms control. In 2020, we intend to prioritize countering the spread of small arms and light weapons, and the destruction of surplus stockpiles of ammunition. Our Organization also excels in responding to emerging challenges, such as cybersecurity and here we have developed an important new set of confidence-building measures, to reduce the risks of conflicts stemming from the use of information technology.

Our third priority is dialogue. Some might say that dialogue is the OSCE’s ultimate purpose and the divisions in our region show how badly we need it. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Charter of Paris for a New Europe. To promote its legacy, I will make it my personal commitment to advance dialogue between OSCE states, and among and within our societies – it is about 57 countries and more than a billion of people from Vancouver to Vladivostok.

Key issues such as risk reduction, incident prevention and environmental protection will feature in debates between OSCE states, international organizations and the civil society. We will promote implementation of the OSCE full confidence and security-building measures to ensure military transparency and rebuild trust. Yet, we see a major obstacle to dialogue in the rise of intolerance, hate crimes and hate speech. To reverse this negative trend and work towards full respect for human dignity and human rights, we must redouble efforts to promote tolerance and non-discrimination. Indeed, just before departing to New York, we opened the Tirana Conference on Combating anti-Semitism. Together, we remembered the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and we of course also shared Albania’s experience of providing sanctuary to Jewish people – as we were a rare example of a European country that had more Jewish people after the war, than before it. Albania is really proud of its history of inter-religious and cultural tolerance, which we see as essential to world peace and security. In our work as honest brokers and chairs of the OSCE, we will be inspired by our tradition of tolerance, openness and respect.

Dear excellencies,

To face today’s broad range of complex challenges, global actions must draw and coordinate the work of regional organizations. The OSCE is an effective partner of the United Nations and a venue to promote the idea that Great Power competition must give way to the way to the Great Power cooperation. I believe that basic principles of the Helsinki Final Act, respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and human rights protection are still today, as they were back then, a simple and effective recipe for security, prosperity and future of peace. Our task for the year ahead will be guarding these principles. Together, the UN and the OSCE, can be decisive for peace, now more than ever.

I thank you all very much for your attention.

*Simultaneous interpretation

 

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*Closing remarks by Prime Minister Edi Rama at the United Nations Security Council meeting on priorities of Albania’s OSCE Chairmanship:

Thank you Mr. Presiden

t!

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Hojsgen, very kindly mentioned the fact that once I used to be a sportsman, which is all about jumping higher than the others. But I want to make sure that everyone knows that I see the Albanian Chairmanship as a mission to stick on the ground.

And I am very well aware that what we, Albania can contribute in 2020 is not to compete with any of the giants that are involved in formulas, contact groups, forums and formats, because it is up to them to push for final solutions. What we can do and be an added value is not to forget that while high-level discussions, or exchanges like the one we just witnessed are taking place, there are people dying.

I want you to know that over four million people on both sides of the contact line, who have benefited from the Special Monitoring Mission through facilitation of ceasefire periods, are actually part of this tragic daily life. Let me tell you that since December 2019, a whopping number of 20, 000 incidents have taken place, out of which 7,000 explosions, while 69 people have died after the ceasefire was declared and assumed by the warring parties. It is not an irrelevant number even though the overall number of casualties has gone dramatically down, yet it is not an irrelevant number. And I would join those who praised President Zelensky, because I think that through not easy steps he is providing a contribution towards opening up to a more intense and fruitful dialogue.

The exchange of large groups of prisoners on 29 December 2019 was particularly important. But, I would also like to underline that there is something factual. I don’t want to embark on, so to say, the difficult path of taking side, but I would like to highlight something factual that is a widespread sentiment based on facts that the Ukrainian side is talking with proxies. This is the problem, so a something a lot more substantial on the Russian side is needed to contribute and influence, because we all know that they can have an important influence on the warring parties on the ground.

I visited the area and I can tell you, as I shared it with you Mr. President, it is not something one can believe even when being there. It is like the post-apocalyptic movies with an average of 10,000 people walking to cross a tiny river through a bridge, whose width is that of an ambulance and not wider than that. And by the way, the ambulance can still not drive to the destination, because an agreement has yet to be reached to let even terminally-ill patients to cross the bridge to go to the hospital. Instead, they have to get off the ambulance and walk and there are patients dying while walking in very cold, nasty and freezing conditions.

I can say I have never experienced such cold weather conditions. And indeed, around 90% of these 10,000 people are elderly people. The have to go to the other side to withdraw pension payment, to buy medicines and so on and so forth. So, I don’t think it is difficult for both sides to reach a common understanding that these are people who belong to God too, while at the same time we are claiming whether they are Russians, or Ukrainians, or whether they are eligible to this and to that. It should be best to provide them the opportunity to bring their dying members of family to hospital without having to stop in the middle of the road. This is what I think we can try to do. Wish me luck, because we will try to achieve this during this year.

To answer the question made by the Estonian Ambassador about how the OSCE and the United Nations can do more or how UN can help more, I think we have to cooperate more, because OSCE is the second largest organization after the United Nations with 57 Participating States and over one billion people and with so many issues. Frankly, we have to do more to make sure that what was agreed back in 1975 is still valid; that is the territorial integrity, the stability and the sovereignty should be all respected. We are talking about the year 1975, when I was a pioneer wearing a red scarf around my neck in a country that back then was the Europe’s North Korea and it was the only country that not only refused to join the OSCE, but slammed the OSCE as the new low of degeneration of the world both in the West and in the East.

And I can tell you that as a man coming from there and looking at the today’s world, these principles are still valid. But sometimes and many times, while following how things go between us it looks like these principles are just nice to be used to fight each other and not to come together and seek to resolve things based on these very principles and by sticking to these principles all together.

My last point, I think that a possible UN peacekeeping operation should not be excluded, exactly in the area we are debating about. Why? Because there is something very disturbing. The Special Monitoring Mission has brought about a lot of positive changes and, as the Russian colleague also said, the Mission has given an important contribution. But, do you know what? It all happens during the daylight only, whereas when the night falls it is all back to bases with explosions and shootings. Therefore, we have started doing a good job by bringing and employing technology since the Mission’s members cannot provide full observation and a 24-hour coverage of all border crossing points, while the video surveillance can.

So, an UN peacekeeping operation should be considered and I very much hope that everyone considers it as a tool to bring more substance to the mind of all of those who should guarantee the ceasefire, while the work on implementation of agreements, formulas, formats, and discussions may take very long.

I was very impressed by someone here who brought up the need to implement something that was already decided back in 2008. So, from 2008 to 2020, in dozens of years, there are people who have died, suffered and are at risk and so on, while the conflict has yet to resolve, or it may not be resolved. This is what I have to say. So, the OSCE and the United Nations can do what parties involved in the conflict, or the facilitators within the conflict are probably unable to achieve, that is providing more for the people, for the ordinary people that are being through a hell of life while all these back and forth efforts are not very promising, as they may go on for ages.

Thank you very much!

*Simultaneous interpretation