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OSCE Says Would Like 'Accommodation' On CFE Treaty

August 30, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said it would like to see "accommodation" between Russia and the West on Moscow's withdrawal from the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.

The OSCE's chairman-in-office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, met today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

The CFE Treaty limits military deployments from the Ural Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. On July 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that suspended Russia's participation in the treaty.

According to Putin, the treaty, originally signed in 1990 but revised in 1999 to reflect the end of the Cold War, has "clearly come to contradict reality."

OSCE spokesman Martin Nesirky told RFE/RL from Moscow today that the OSCE chairman-in-office is "very concerned" about the matter.

"He [Moratinos] wishes to see progress on trying to bring the sides together by the time we get to the Ministerial Council in November," Nesirky said. "So he is personally saying -- and he said so publicly -- this is not something that he necessarily just said in his meeting with Minister Lavrov -- that he wishes to work on some kind of declaration, which will help to pull things forward, or push things forward, towards reaching some kind of an accommodation on the CFE Treaty, the adapted version of the CFE Treaty."

Georgian Missile Incident Discussed

The ministers also discussed the August 6 incident in which Georgia accuses Russia of dropping a missile on its territory. Moscow denies the accusation.

Moratinos outlined the contents of a report prepared by his special envoy, former Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul, on meetings last week in Moscow and Tbilisi.

The report, which is not yet publicly available, will be presented by Zuzul at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on September 6.

"I think the key point here is that it's not the OSCE's role to pass judgment, or point the finger," spokesman Nesirky said. "It's to listen to all sides, and to recommend and seek ways to avoid similar incidents and tensions in the future. So this is not about trying to establish who was responsible, or what exactly happened, but to look to the future to try to find ways to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again."

The ministers also discussed areas of cooperation in the run-up to the OSCE Ministerial Council, which is to take place in Madrid in late November.

They also discussed bilateral relations between Spain and Russia.

Copyright (c) 2007. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org