Madam President,

First of all, let me thank you for organizing today's meeting. Ukraine supports its objectives, namely to further strengthen cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional arrangements in conflict prevention, mediation, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. The presence with us today of the President of Argentina attests to the importance that your country attaches to this issue.

I also wish to thank the Secretary-General as well as honourable representatives of regional and sub-regional organizations for their respective insights.

While Ukraine aligns itself with the statement made on behalf of the European Union, I would like to make a few comments my national capacity.

During its only membership in the Security Council as an independent state in 2000-2001, Ukraine paid particular attention to the strengthening of interaction between the Council and regional organizations based on the principles of effective and clear division of labour, complementarily, added value, comparative advantages and regional ownership.

We welcome the progress achieved since then in ensuring closer and more operational cooperation. Here the most recent re-hatting experience in Mali comes to mind.

Yet, the goal of ensuring coherence, synergy and collective effectiveness of the joint efforts remains as relevant as ever. That is why we fully support today’s comprehensive Presidential statement aimed at achieving  this purpose.

Madam President,

As is rightly pointed out in the Concept Note, one of the regional organizations, which, along with the African Union, enjoys the most established interaction with the Security Council, is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Since Ukraine has the honour to Chair the OSCE in 2013, let me briefly outline some suggestions on how to further advance UN-OSCE partnership. For the sake of time I will confine myself to general remarks, while the full text of the statement will be uploaded to my Mission’s web page.

As was emphasized by OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara before this Council in May, the OSCE is a strong partner of the United Nations in promoting international peace and security in its area.

With a comprehensive approach to security and in view of its geographical scope stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, the OSCE enjoys a particular place among all other regional organizations under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter.

In March 2006 the OSCE Permanent Council adopted a Declaration on Cooperation with the United Nations, welcoming Security Council resolution 1631 and declaring its readiness to further reinforce cooperation with the UN.

Consequently, the OSCE has boosted its interaction with the United Nations in all three dimensions (the politico-military; the economic and environmental; and the human), with particular attention to addressing post-conflict challenges, humanitarian needs and transnational threats.

Madam President,

As security challenges continue to evolve, the nature of UN-OSCE collaboration must evolve as well, becoming more pragmatic and action-oriented. We should clearly identify areas where the two organizations can most effectively work together or in parallel – but not in competition – guided by the needs and priorities of its member states.

In our view, the OSCE should continue to engage closely on mediation with the UN and its Friends of Mediation, particularly as the OSCE further bolsters its own mediation and mediation-support capacity through various measures. Let me highlight just three examples from recent months.

First, the OSCE participated in the High-Level Seminar on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Processes, organized in Oslo by UN DPA together with the Oslo Peace Research Institute and the Crisis Management Initiative. During the seminar, further cooperation opportunities were discussed to build on, for instance, the ongoing UN-OSCE staff exchange programme, which includes the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre’s Mediation Support Officer coming to New York to work for a few weeks with the UN Mediation Support Unit.

Second, during a Conference on Mediation in the OSCE area, held in Bucharest in July, several concrete ideas were advanced for joint mediation support activities of the OSCE with inter alia the UN Mediation Support Unit. These included the UN providing participants to the OSCE’s upcoming mediation training course and the OSCE making use of the UN Mediation Standby Team for its own trainings and capacity-building workshops.

Lastly, the OSCE looks forward to providing input should there be a General Assembly Resolution at its next session on the role of regional organizations in mediation. The OSCE is also ready to support a mediation event in 2014 as follow up to last year’s consultation on “Developing Guidance for Effective Mediation”, held in Jeddah and coorganized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the UN and the OSCE.

The OSCE will remain committed to supporting the UN by helping to create more synergies in key regions of common attention. Regions of priority for the OSCE include: Central Asia/Afghanistan, the Caucasus, the Balkans and also the neighbouring region of the Southern Mediterranean.

In particular, security, political and economic transition in Afghanistanas well as the withdrawal of International Security Forces in 2014 will continue to have security implications for the OSCE area. The OSCE has been actively involved in strengthening the capacities of Afghan officials on border security and management. Since 2009, the OSCEBorderManagementStaffCollege in Dushanbe has trained more than 1,300 border experts from thirty eight OSCE participating States and Partners, including more than 400 Afghan border professionals.

Progress in finding sustainable long-term solution to the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area is on top of the Ukrainian Chairmanship agenda. We highly appreciate the UN input to solving security and humanitarian issues in the area of conflict in Georgia within the framework of the Geneva International Discussions.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo is a key component of the UNMIK framework, providing valuable experience and expertise in institution-building and promoting human rights and engaging actively with UNHCR, UNDP and other international organizations. Both Belgrade and Pristina have mandated the OSCE to facilitate Municipal Elections in the four Northern Kosovo Municipalities on the 3^rd of November. The objective of the OSCE’s facilitation is to create the best possible conditions to enhance trust among the local communities in the process.

The OSCE devotes particular attention to a broad range of transnational threats. This includes very close co-operation with the UN Counterterrorism Strategy, as well as an interaction on Drugs, Borders and WMD Non-proliferation. Therefore, we see particular merit in deepening cooperation with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, the Security Council Committee 1540 and the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes. An updated Joint Action Plan for 2013-2014 with the latter entered into force this April.

With regard to countering terrorism, the OSCE works extremely closely with different counter-terrorism related UN structures, such as the Counter Terrorism Implementation Task Force (UNCTITF), the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED) but also with the recently founded United Nations Counter Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) and the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA). The UNCTED, for example, regularly invites the OSCE to participate in country assessment visits in the OSCE region (such as the visit to Albania in January 2012, to Kyrgyzstan in April 2012 and to Serbia in March 2013).

In the area of policing, the OSCE developed strong ties with the DPKO’s Police Division and is actively cooperating in the development of the new UN Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping. Let me recall that this March Ukraine hosted one of the dedicated regional seminars.

Within the OSCE Economic and Environmental Dimension, the core theme for 2013 is increasing stability and security by improving the environmental footprint of energy-related activities. In this area we also see a great potential for building on existing cooperation between the OSCE and UN.

The fight against trafficking in human beings remains one of the key issues addressed by the OSCE under the Ukrainian Chairmanship. We continue to pursue comprehensive human rights-based approach to modern-day slavery – the crime that threatens the rule of law and human development of our nations. We fully share the values promoted by the UN agencies with regard to countering human trafficking and closely collaborate with the UNODC, UNHCR, ILO, UNICEF and UNOHCHR within the OSCE-initiated Alliance against Trafficking in Persons, as well as on a bilateral basis and under the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking. Within the respective mandates, the OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (SR/CTHB) and other OSCE structures and institutions promote the implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols, and support the UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.   

In June, the Chairmanship held in Kyiv a high-level international conference on combating trafficking in human beings. The event paved the way for forthcoming consultations on updating the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings and elaboration of a new Addendum to strengthen the OSCE response to modern-day slavery.

Earlier in April, the OSCE and the UNODC conducted a joint side-event in the framework of the UN Crime Commission, dedicated to the presentation of the Recommendations of the OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings on Non-Punishment of Victims of Trafficking that were elaborated in cooperation with the partners of the Alliance. In partnership with UNODC, the SR/CTHB is organizing an international training seminar for judges in Israel, the 5-8 August 2013.

Other priorities of the Ukrainian Chairmanship in human dimension include strengthening freedom of media. It is worth noting that the OSCE Representative on the Freedom of Media has been engaged in drafting the UN Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists, which is quite telling in the light of the Council’s open debate on this very issue last month. UN and OSCE continuously share relevant information in this field.

The OSCE has developed effective cooperation with a number of other specialized UN agencies, like UNODA, UNDP, UNHCR, UN Women.

Madam President,

This list of priority areas of the UN-OSCE collaboration is not exhaustive, and Ukrainian Chairmanship will exert every effort to advance this bilateral interaction as comprehensively and effectively as possible.

In closing, let me reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to taking forward cooperation between the UN and its regional and sub-regional partners.

Thank you.