UN General Assembly
1997

reiterate our position against NATO’s expansion as a military organization, but also to add to it that we are in favour of its development into a universal European organization for peace and security. It is with this intention that we have entered into negotiations with NATO and presented a programme for Belarusian participation in the Partnership for Peace. We sincerely hope that by developing a more constructive approach we will reach a mutual understanding, which could be reinforced by some mutual obligations. We would also like to state that with this evolution of NATO and a thorough analysis of existing world and regional security systems and treaties, further emphasis should be attached to well-established regional organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to their closer cooperation with the United Nations and its specialized agencies. As to the OSCE, we feel certain that it has already accumulated profound experience and skills in tackling many important security issues and is able to make a major contribution to strengthening peace and security on the