OSCE meeting fails on arms treaty and Kosovo 03/12/2007 00:00

3 December 2007

MADRID - The ministerial council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ended in Madrid Friday without solving issues relating to Russia-Kosovo relations, managing instead to highlight current tension between the West and Moscow.

Diplomatic efforts by Spain, which held the 2007 OSCE chairmanship, were in vain as Russia refused to reconsider its  suspension of the conventional weapons limitation treaty. The US representative at the conference, Nicholas Burns, was disappointed at what he termed a "unilateral withdrawal from the most important arms control regime in the last 20 years."

The meeting also failed to arrive at a formal decision over its mission in Kosovo, which ends on 31 December. According to Burns, most member states want it to be extended even if the region unilaterally declares its independence from Serbia.

[Copyright EL PAÍS, SL./ Á. A. HERNÁNDEZ 2007]

Subject: Spanish news