A summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) expected in the capital of Kazakhstan this year could help reform the organization and make breakthrough decisions on problematic issues, experts polled by RIA Novosti said.
August 1 marks the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act that set out the principles of the modern architecture of European security. Experts expect the Astana summit to start the process of transforming the OSCE, which was established by the Helsinki Final Act.
"We hope that the OSCE summit in Astana could launch changes within the OSCE and help achieve breakthrough decisions and solve many problems, including the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, frozen conflicts, the situation in Afghanistan and many other issues," Leonid Gusev, a senior researcher at the Center of Analytical Monitoring at the Moscow Institute of International Relations, said.
According to Alexei Vlasov, general director of Moscow University's Information and Analytical Center for the Study of Social and Political Processes in the Post-Soviet Space, the decision to hold an OSCE summit has been a great success of Kazakhstan as the organization's rotating chairman.
"Quite recently, no one believed that an agreement on the summit could be reached. But member states have been able to agree on a consolidated agenda of the summit. I can't predict whether the summit would bring about any cardinal changes but I look optimistically at breakthrough solutions on the Afghan problem," Vlasov said.
Meanwhile, Andrei Fyodorov, director of political programs of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, said the most important thing was to open a road towards improvements and transformation of the OSCE, taking into account the modalities of the time.
"We need no so much breakthrough decisions as general consent and readiness to start the process of historic renewal. The U.S. and Russia could act as the driving force in this process," he said.
MOSCOW, August 1 (RIA Novosti)
