Discuss the following questions with your partners.

1. What is the OSCE?
2. When was the OSCE established?
3. What were the purposes of the OSCE creation?
4. How many member states are there in the OSCE?
5. When was Kazakhstan admitted to the organization?

In 2010 Kazakhstan assumed the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE Summit in Astana, which took place on December 1-2, 2010 after more than ten years' interval, became the main concluding event of the presidency. The previous summit was held in Istanbul in 1999.

Kazakhstan became the first post-Soviet state that chaired in the Organization. This historical decision indicated that the principle of equality of the participating states was still in effect and also demonstrated a recognition of the country’s increasing role in the strategically important region and in the OSCE space.

Four “T”s became the motto of Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in OSCE: trust, tradition, transparency and tolerance. Trust is a key resource of international relations that is needed by all countries; it cannot be something self-evident during such considerable historical changes. Tradition underlines Kazakhstan’s commitment to fundamental principles and values of the OSCE. Transparency conveys maximum openness, free of “double standards” and “dividing lines”, and a focus on constructive cooperation in the field of security. Tolerance is realization of the increasing importance of intercultural and intercivilizational dialogue.

The Astana Summit demonstrated a clear political will of heads of OSCE participating states in overcoming crisis phenomena and mutual estrangement between the states-participants. Besides that, the Summit took place in the heart of Eurasia, thousand kilometres from the Europe’s geographical borders. This event reflected the changed paradigm of the European security. The meeting in the capital of Kazakhstan encouraged joint efforts aimed at safe future of the people of participating states. The main themes of the Summit were sustainable security in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area, the problem of Afghanistan, resolution of “frozen” conflicts.

The President of Kazakhstan declared transition to a new level of security and cooperation in wider geographical borders – “from ocean to ocean”. In particular, it relates to creation of a common security space within borders of four oceans - from Atlantic to Pacific and from Arctic to Indian. Thus, the OSCE Summit in Astana has launched creation of Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian community of common and indivisible security.

38 heads of states and governments, one vice-president, seven deputy heads of governments, fourteen ministers and other high-ranking officials from OSCE participating states and partners for cooperation, and also representatives of other international and regional organizations participated in the Summit. Among them were OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Prime-Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, other leaders of leading international organisations and states.

The Summit ended with the adoption of Astana Declaration. The Summit participants reaffirmed commitments, principles and values of OSCE provided by the Helsinki Act and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, as well as other documents of the Organization. Besides that, representatives of the participating states undertook to continue the work in all three dimensions of OSCE, to increase efforts in order to resolve existing conflicts in the area of responsibility, protection of human rights, provision of the rule of law, to reinvigorate the Organization in the interests of an adequate response to new security challenges. The revival of the “Spirit of Helsinki” in new historical conditions was the main result of the Summit. Besides that, the Summit contributed to the increase of OSCE’s authority and its position in the world, to strengthening of trust and mutual understanding between the participating states.

The Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev described the two-day Summit as “an historic event for the entire OSCE community” that had been characterized by the “spirit of Astana”.

The summit in Astana received a high appraisal from heads of delegations. OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut noted that decisions adopted in the capital of Kazakhstan, promoted joining the efforts of the major players on the space from Vancouver to Vladivostok for solution of the main problem - ensuring security and development of a common strategy of countering the common threats and challenges. The OSCE Summit in Astana provided another real opportunity to start building of the “common European house”. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that Kazakhstan’s OSCE chairmanship was very successful. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underlined that the OSCE Summit is the evidence of Kazakhstan’s increasing role in the international community.

OSCE is the world's largest regional security organization with 56 participating states located in Europe, Central Asia and North America.

(https://www.akorda.kz/en/page/osce_1342010101)