The OSCE Secretary General has called for renewed investment in diplomacy and mediation, saying channels of communication must remain open as geopolitical competition and mistrust deepen.
Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu made the appeal during the high-level opening session of the ninth Istanbul Mediation Conference. His intervention focused on dialogue, co-operation and the peaceful resolution of disputes, rather than announcing a new negotiation, agreement or mediation process.
He said the continuing escalation of the war in Ukraine made it especially urgent to sustain diplomatic engagement. The central message was that closed channels should be reopened where possible and that diplomacy should not be abandoned when conflicts become more difficult to resolve.
A forum for mediation
The conference in Istanbul ran on 23 and 24 October and brought together political figures, diplomats, representatives of international organisations and specialists working on mediation. Its stated theme was partnerships and new perspectives for peace in a changing world.
The gathering is the ninth in a series that began in 2012. It is designed as a forum for exchanging experience on mediation, preventive diplomacy and ways to address conflicts without violence. That purpose is important to the latest intervention: the remarks were a call to preserve the conditions in which talks can happen, not a claim that a particular conflict has been settled.
Mediation can take many forms. It may involve direct talks between parties, work by a third party to reduce misunderstandings, or quieter efforts to build confidence before formal negotiations begin. None of those approaches guarantees an outcome. They depend on the consent of the parties involved, a credible process and sustained engagement over time.
The OSCE’s stated role
Sinirlioğlu pointed to the OSCE’s role as a venue for diplomatic engagement among its 57 participating States. The organisation also works through field operations intended to help reduce risks, prevent conflict, manage tensions and build trust across divisions.
Those functions do not give the organisation a power to impose a political settlement. Their value lies in providing structures through which governments and other relevant actors can communicate, test ideas and respond to emerging risks. The Secretary General’s call placed particular emphasis on maintaining that space at a time when trust between states is under strain.
The conference itself was hosted by Türkiye’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan. Its programme placed mediation alongside preventive diplomacy, reflecting the view that efforts to manage a dispute can be most useful before positions harden further or violence expands.
For international institutions, the practical challenge is often not simply to bring people into the same room. It is to keep contact possible when public positions are far apart and when domestic or regional pressures make compromise difficult. The call in Istanbul was directed at that problem: communication may be limited or politically fraught, but it remains a necessary part of any peaceful effort to resolve a dispute.
An appeal, not a settlement
No new peace process, timetable or formal outcome was set out in the remarks. The development is therefore a renewed public appeal for diplomacy, framed around the need for dialogue and co-operation in a period of heightened international tension.
That distinction matters. A conference statement can underline priorities and encourage further engagement, but it does not by itself reopen talks or change the position of parties to a conflict. Whether the call leads to further diplomatic activity will depend on decisions made by the governments and organisations involved after the conference.
For now, the ninth Istanbul Mediation Conference has added another high-level call to protect the channels through which disputes can be addressed peacefully. Its immediate significance is the emphasis on keeping those channels available even when the prospects for agreement appear remote.
