The OSCE Structured Dialogue

The OSCE Structured Dialogue on current and future challenges and risks to security in the OSCE area brings together senior officials from capitals and ambassadors of the Organization’s 57 participating States in the format of an informal working group to discuss the challenges in the wider politico-military sphere, explore possibilities of overcoming divergences and reversing the negative developments that have marked European security in recent years.

The Structured Dialogue was launched by foreign ministers in their Declaration on Twentieth Anniversary of the OSCE Arms Control Framework at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg in December 2016. Against a background of growing concerns among participating States about a European security landscape increasingly characterized by eroding arms control, snap military exercises and close military encounters, the Structured Dialogue seeks to foster greater mutual understanding and a common solid basis for a way forward.

We will work towards creating an environment conducive to reinvigorating conventional arms control and CSBMs in Europe.

Lisbon to Hamburg Declaration December 2016

The guiding principles of the Structured Dialogue are transparency, collective ownership and respect for diverging views in the OSCE area.

The Informal Working Group is chaired by the head of a delegation of an OSCE participating State, who is appointed by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. The chair of the informal working group reports to the chairs of the OSCE Permanent Council and the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation.

The Structured Dialogue is currently chaired by the Netherlands. In 2018 it was chaired by Belgium and in 2017 it was chaired by Germany.