On September 25, 2014, Russian International Affairs Council and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held the international seminar "Helsinki +40 Process: Prospects for Strengthening the OSCE" with participation of the OSCE PA representatives, top European politicians and civil society leaders, Russian parliamentarians and key experts. The event was opened by the project co-chair Joao Soares (MP, Portugal) and RIAC President Igor Ivanov.
On September 25, 2014, Russian International Affairs Council and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held the international seminar "Helsinki +40 Process: Prospects for Strengthening the OSCE" with participation of the OSCE PA representatives, top European politicians and civil society leaders, Russian parliamentarians and key experts.
The event was opened by the project co-chair Joao Soares (MP, Portugal) and RIAC President Igor Ivanov.
The speakers' list at the plenary session included OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva; OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver; Alexey Pushkov, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma; Vladimir Jabarov, First Deputy Head of the Russian Federation Committee on International Affair; and Ivan Soltanovsky, Director of the European Cooperation Department at Russian Foreign Ministry.
Reports were made by Andrey Zagorsky, department head at RAS Institute of World Economy and International Relations, and Ambassador Javier Ruperez, former President of the OSCE PA, one of the makers of the Helsinki Final Act.
Commentaries came from Alexander Grushko, Permanent Representative to NATO; Alexander Dzasokhov, Deputy Chairman of Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO and RIAC Member; Ambassador-at-Large Anvar Azimov and others.
The speakers agreed that the OSCE is one of the few organizations effective in crises and should remain an actor within practical politics. The "Helsinki+40" project is a platform for discussing international security and scenarios for building a new security architecture.
The seminar was part of the OSCE PA project timed to the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act and aimed at generating guidelines for the organization's future activities in strengthening security and cooperation in the Euro-Atlantic space on the basis of its past experience. The project is implemented jointly by RIAC, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
Similar seminars will take place in Washington and Stockholm, while the project results are to be summed up at the final Colloquium to be organized by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in the Finlandia Hall, where the Helsinki Final Act was signed 40 years ago to launch the OSCE.
The Colloquium will be held in July 2015, in parallel with the 24th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
International Seminar "Helsinki +40 Process: Prospects for Strengthening the OSCE"
