Prva faza dogovora o evropskoj sigurnosti i suradnji
First Stage in the Talks on European Security and Co-Operation

Summary/Abstract: The results are examined of the Helsinki Conference of foreign ministers, and the main lines of its deliberations are traced. The facts that all states that had participated in the preparations were also represented at the Conference; that all ministers expressed their views on European security and co-operation ; and that no objection was voiced against the continuation of efforts to deal with these major issues clearly indicate the importance attached to European security and co-operation as well as the responsibility borne by the participating states for its further progress. By analyzing the debates on the questions of European security, the possibilities to promote economic relations, co-operation in the field of information and human contacts, and the efforts to institutionalize the Conference, an attempt is made to provide a survey of the most important points and to indicate some other issues which will inevitably have to be considered when individual aspects of European security and co-operation are defined. It is suggested in the concluding paragraphs that the Helsinki Conference of foreign ministers has laid the foundations for high-level European consultation and agreement, but that, understandably, after a long period of tension in inter-state relations, the present process of forging inter-European links and relations of a different quality cannot be expected to proceed either smoothly or quickly. The Helsinki agreements, and especially the long negotiations that took place in the commissions in Geneva, provide the best confirmation of such predictions. Still, despite of this, the mere fact that negotiations are conducted and that there is a wish to change and transcend the present relations in Europe are evidence of the existence of a continuous trend in the direction of change and the establishment of new constructive relations on the European Continent.

• Details
• Contents