Interfax's Interview

 “We are increasing the number of trade and economic agreements and visits. This means that the Belgian authorities and businessmen believe in Russia’s economic potential,” De Gucht said in an interview with Interfax.

In 2005, Belgian exports to Russia exceeded 2 billion euro, up 22% against the previous year, and Russian exports to Belgium topped 4 billion euro, up 33% against 2004, he said.

A Russian-Belgian action program for 2005-2007 was signed during President Vladimir Putin's visit to Belgium in October 2005, he said.

“This program is being implemented and provides for political dialogue in various forms, and it also covers cooperation in the areas of defense, justice, the interior, economy, trade, finance and taxes,” he said.

He cited the recent Europalia Festival devoted to Russia as a successful bilateral initiative in which about 1.1 million people visited 600 cultural events in a five-month period in Belgium.

There is potential for growth in bilateral cooperation, De Gucht said, noting, however, that barriers still exist in the investment climate, especially in the legal security sphere. “The Russian market offers a lot of new opportunities for businessmen, both foreign in general and Belgian in particular. Therefore, they must do all they can to make use of it now,” he said.

As the OSCE chairman-in-office, De Gucht said he is against applying uniform principles in settling regional conflicts.

The OSCE  does not think that there could be uniform principles for settling conflicts in Europe, including in the former Soviet republics, he said.

"The frozen conflicts, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria have their own characteristics. So has the one in Kosovo,” De Gucht said.

"The five conflicts involve a wide variety of situations and circumstances invalidating any claim that a 'single standard' and 'universal model' is applicable to all," De Gucht said in an interview with Interfax.

In remarks on the referenda on the status of the breakaway republics, he said, "The OSCE does not recognize the results of the referendum of independence in Transdniestria."

"A referendum on Transdniestria's future status could be a possible option, but only after a political solution has been agreed at the negotiating table and only provided the necessary conditions for a free and fair vote are in place," he said.

“The OSCE will not recognize the referendum in South Ossetia,” he added.

De Gucht confirmed the OSCE’s concern about the treatement of ethnic minorities in Latvia and Estonia.

"The OSCE follows the situation of the Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia closely via its High Commissioner on National Minorities, Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, notably via frequent visits and reports and recommendations to the governments concerned," De Gucht said.

"His work is intense and he certainly has an influence," he said.

"In Latvia, issues in the focus of the High Commissioner's attention include the implementation of school reform, the naturalization process and debate on amendments to the citizenship law, as well as the implementation of the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities," he said.

As regards Estonia, Ekeus' last visit to that country took place at the end of October 2005, De Gucht said.

Asked about his opinion regarding the OSCE’s role in international affairs, De Gucht said he believes the organization needs not so much reform as more efficient work.

The OSCE is “not a particularly hierarchical organization. At the same time, the centralization of decision-making is not necessarily a magic wand. The rule of consensus, to which all the member-states are committed, does not promote efficient and rapid decision-making, especially considering that, according to democratic procedures,  these 56 countries have the right to express their opinion,” De Gucht said.

In the current situation, it would make sense to talk not so much about OSCE reform as “it would to talk about the increasing of the OSCE’s efficiency, which is among the main goals of [Belgium’s] presidency [of the organization],” De Gucht said.

“One wants to see profound changes which would lead to a modification of the internal balance of the organization, while others favor the status quo, they do not want to change anything on the pretext that changes in the current context would undermine the foundations of the fragile consensus on which the balance of our rights and obligations is based. I personally think that one can expect progress for the sake of the organization’s interests, to which all are committed, despite its flaws,” he said.

More Interfax’s interviews...