The United States welcomes the visit of Foreign Minister Fischer to the Permanent Council. It is a pleasure to see such a good friend of the United States and strong supporter of the OSCE with us today.

Foreign Minister Fischer's address to the Permanent Council today, like Secretary of State Albright’s to the Council last year, is yet further testimony to the high-level attention and interest of Participating States in the OSCE's work.

Today, all of us -- individual states, as well as multilateral organizations such as the OSCE -- are continuing to pursue the post-cold war challenge of building a Europe free, undivided, and democratic.

In southeastern Europe, as elsewhere, we must strive to ensure that our various activities are coordinated, complementary and rationally developed.

One of the lessons of the past decade is that a just and durable peace throughout the OSCE community will depend as much on building confidence and security among people within democratic societies as on building cooperation among states.

By instilling and reinforcing among all states in the OSCE area full respect for human rights, including the rights of individuals belonging to national minorities, we can reduce the likelihood of conflict within and between states.

In this regard, and as we approach Istanbul, we must continue to work hard to achieve a Summit-worthy Charter. It should be a concise and publicly accessible document that lays out our vision of the OSCE for all to understand. It should guide our organization's future work and institutional development. We support the efforts of the chair to produce such a document, and stand ready to cooperate with him and other delegations to achieve this goal by the Istanbul Summit.

We welcome Foreign Minister Fischer’s emphasis on the importance of the CFE treaty, which we view as a cornerstone of European security, and we share the goal of concluding the process of adapting the treaty and signing the Adaptation Amendment at the Summit in Istanbul.

With regard to Southeast Europe, the United States fully supports the goals of the Stability Pact and has welcomed the German Government and Foreign Minister Fischer’s vigorous engagement on the Pact. President Clinton and Secretary Albright have an abiding interest in the Pact’s success.

We view the July Sarajevo and November Istanbul Summits as bookends to what must be an intensive effort to make real progress on Stability Pact implementation.

Maintaining political momentum will be key. As we set longer-term efforts in place, we should seek a substantial package of items to advance by November.

The Regional Table of the Stability Pact has approved a good work program. We must now agree on concrete steps forward.

A key issue in this regard is corruption. Unless we and the countries of the region work seriously together to stop this scourge, much of our overall effort will be ineffective. We have shared with those involved in the Stability Pact our notional outline of a regional anti-corruption initiative, which we believe should be a special initiative of the Stability Pact Special Coordinator, and which should be agreed by Istanbul.

At the Economic Working Table meeting this Saturday in Bari, Italy, we believe it important to agree on an investment compact and follow-up action plan for the region. In addition, priority regional infrastructure and energy projects should be reviewed for financial support by the donor mobilization process.

We also believe there should be a regional donors' conference by the end of the year.

The Security Working Table meeting next week in Oslo should focus on concrete next steps. Working with the countries of the region to join and implement non-proliferation regimes is one important element. Responsible arms sales policies is another.

The Democratization/Human Rights Table in Geneva October 18-19 should consider, under OSCE auspices, the possibility of a regional implementation mechanism of commitments derived from the Stability Pact. We are interested in British ideas regarding a media charter and Southeast European broadcasting union.

We would welcome and support exploration of a textbook commission or other initiatives related to education and history. The Stability Pact Conference with Serbian mayors in Szeged, Hungary this week is a useful vehicle to promote democratization.

In short, President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright have an abiding interest in the Stability Pact.

The United States is making good on President Clinton's commitments in Sarajevo, including draft trade legislation providing for unilateral trade concessions for the region. We encourage our other partners in the Pact to consider similar or even more ambitious measures.

With regard to institutional development, the OSCE of today faces increased demands across its wide range of activities.

The most effective mechanism we have to respond to these demands is the political will of Participating States.

Each Participating State must work to implement its OSCE commitments. The OSCE cannot implement domestic legislation, protect individual rights, or enhance economic prospects; but it can assist us if we have the political will to act.

We have witnessed an increase in the number and size of field missions, with a corresponding strain on the Secretariat's capacity to respond to administrative and resource needs.

Recruitment, training, and retention of skilled staff must remain a top priority for the OSCE.

We need to build on the "strategy of capacity building through training" approved by the Permanent Council last year to ensure that our mission personnel are adequately trained.

In line with the need for increased OSCE capabilities, the United States has proposed the creation of Rapid Expert Assistance and Cooperation Teams or "REACT."

A small REACT office within the Secretariat would build a resource capacity from national databases of experts in such fields as rule of law, human rights, elections, and policing.

As a resource upon which OSCE institutions, OSCE missions, and the Chairman-in-Office could rely in keeping with OSCE principles and procedure in personnel, REACT would maximize the OSCE's operational ability to assist Participating States in the most effective and timely manner.

A number of other proposals, including the creation of a crisis cell and planning capacity within the Secretariat must also be carefully examined. We must ensure that the OSCE has the ability to cope with its work, but avoid hampering the effectiveness of a lean and non-redundant structure.

We must always keep in mind a clear mission and draw upon existing resources, both within and without the OSCE, when evaluating resource needs.

As President Clinton noted in his September 21 address to the United Nations General Assembly, we need to do more to prevent killing and dislocation of innocents around the world.

We are better off when nations resolve their differences by force of argument rather than force of arms.

Primitive claims of racial, ethnic or religious superiority threaten to destroy the greatest potential for human development in history.

The 20th century's amazing progress has given us the knowledge, resources and institutions to strengthen the international community's capacity to prevent and, whenever possible, to stop outbreaks of mass killing and displacement. Now we must use them.

Where internal events raise human rights concerns and have international consequences, peace and security interests may -- under the appropriate circumstances -- demand an international response.

The United States would like to express its continuing concern about the fighting in the North Caucasus region, and the recent wave of terrorist attacks. We urge all legitimate leaders to engage in dialogue to find a political solution to the crisis. We call for all sides to refrain from indiscriminate use of force.

In Kosovo, some of the OSCE’s most difficult challenges still confront us.

The United States continues to strongly support an OSCE training role in the development of the Kosovo Protection Corps.

Taking on this challenge will give us the opportunity not only to shape this organization but inculcate respect for human rights and democracy we consider essential to its successful operation.

The OSCE’s performance in establishing the Kosovo Police School clearly demonstrates its ability to take on this task skillfully. The international community is looking to us to manifest similar leadership on the Kosovo Protection Corps training. We must answer that call positively.

There can be no denying the fact that an OSCE role in training for the KPC will have financial implications. We must recognize however, that support for the KPC in the form of necessary training should be considered an investment that will spare us the costs that neglect is likely to produce.

It is difficult to over-emphasize the importance of OSCE’s mandate in promoting the establishment of strong, democratic institutions in Kosovo. We should all take pride in the OSCE’s achievement to date in placing hundreds of experts in the field to take on the challenges this mandate imposes.

The conduct of free and fair elections in Kosovo will also play a key role in giving the Kosovars a stake in their future and instilling in that community confidence in democratic processes.

We need to redouble our efforts to place experts in the field so that we can prepare the groundwork for elections in as timely and responsible a manner as possible.

Finally, we, like Germany, are also encouraged by the resumption of the negotiations under Article V of Annex 1-B of the Dayton/Paris Accords.

The United States is prepared for serious work in these negotiations aimed at addressing a key facet of the region's security challenges -- our aim will be to agree upon measures that will advance the goals of peace and stability throughout the region "in and around the Former Yugoslavia."

We are also prepared to work from the proposed Year 2000 Work Program, which suggests that we may complete our work by next year's OSCE Ministerial meeting.

That said, we do not think it is necessary or helpful to the Article V process, to establish firm deadlines for the completion of our work. As we saw last year, there are a number of sensitive and important factors outside of Article V which can have a significant impact on our work within Article V.

We are prepared to establish goals or targets for our work, but we will be loath to agree to deadlines or fixed timetables for our work.