Helsinki - Conflict resolution aimed at averting events like the recent war between Russia and Georgia was a key issue for the 56- nation Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said Thursday. He was addressing some 50 foreign ministers as the 16th ministerial conference got under way to what was clear criticism of Russia by Georgia's Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili.
Tkeshelashvili - without mentioning Russia by name - said that "invading forces had not withdrawn" after the ceasefire brokered by the European Union and the OSCE.
But Tkeshelashvili stressed there was need for an extension of the OSCE mission in Georgia, with observers having "full access" to all areas. It was not possible to have "confidence in negotiations unless there was compliance of the ceasefire," the Georgian minister said.
Stubb, who holds the rotating chairmanship, earlier welcomed the foreign ministers along with Finnish President Tarja Halonen as the conference got under way.
Stubb said the chairmanship year had included "some bad news," specifically mentioning the "ferocious conflict and war in Georgia."
The recent Geneva talks between the parties were welcomed by Stubb, who also looked forward to a discussion on proposals for a new European security structure floated by Russia and France.
The OSCE evolved from the Helsinki process that in 1975, during the Cold War, saw the signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Among the foreign ministers present in the Finnish capital were Russia's Sergei Lavrov, Bernard Kouchner of France, Britain's David Miliband, and Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Steinmeier said there was "urgent" need for "a new start when it comes to arms control."
He said Germany planned to host a meeting to discuss the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), which Russia has suspended in protest at US plans to create a missile-defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Miliband said he supported the German plan, and backed OSCE military monitoring in Georgia and breakaway regions.
Absent was US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has travelled to India and Pakistan in an attempt to defuse tensions between the two neighbours after the recent attacks in Mumbai.
The OSCE's activities include election monitoring. It has also been engaged in efforts to solve so-called frozen conflicts involving the breakaway regions of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan and Transnistria in Moldova.
Stubb and other speakers also noted the organization's efforts to tackle human trafficking and drugs.
