Ewald Heinrich von Kleist Award

Excellences, Ladies and Gentleman, Ewald Heinrich von Kleist, after whom the award is named, was an extraordinary person who put his life on the line in resistance to the Nazi regime. 

He was a remarkably courageous man of great conviction who was willing to place the greater good above his own welfare.  

Von Kleist maintained his tenacious commitment to peace and security after the war, founding in 1963 the Munich Security conference, which has become the premier event of its kind in the world. 

Another notable event took place just 12 years after von Kleist initiated this conference. 

That event was the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, which brought into being the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the precursor to what is now the OSCE. 

Over the years the OSCE has worked tirelessly to find solutions to numerous threats to European peace and security. 

Today, the Ukrainian crisis presents one of the most complex and challenging crises that the organization has ever faced. 

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has an extraordinarily difficult and sensitive mission to fulfill. 

Barely one day after the consensus agreement in March OSCE staffers were already on the ground ready to set up this important operation, which has deployed monitors throughout the country, acting as the eyes and ears of the OCSE. 

As a veteran of peace operations, I know how hard it is to mount and sustain such operations in highly volatile and fraught situations. The OCSE deserves full credit for its rapid reaction.

So I am pleased to present to the OSCE troika the 2015 von Kleist award, which honours outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to international peace and conflict resolution.

The troika is represented by:

• Didier Burkhalter, Foreign Minister of Switzerland who has very assiduously and ably guided the Organization through the complexities of the Ukrainian conflict; 

• Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic of Serbia, who now takes up the role as his country starts assumes the chairmanship; and 

• Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Foreign Minister of Germany who will take the chair in 2016. 

To all of them we owe them our sincere thanks and encouragement as they seek to prevent further violence and suffering in eastern Ukraine and search for a peaceful and just settlement of that conflict.  

I believe that Von Kleist would have been pleased to know that we are honouring the OCSE with an award given in his name. 

He witnessed at first hand the terrible consequences of war in Europe. 

Now more than ever, OCSE is needed to help prevent such a tragedy from happening again.