Switzerland submits candidature to chair OSCE in 2026

The OSCE is currently facing a challenging environment. The war in Ukraine, global shifts in power, increasing competition among the world's major powers, polarisation and diverging interests and values, as well as the growing influence of authoritarian governments, are undermining the organisation’s core values: dialogue, trust and cooperation. This limits the OSCE's scope for decision-making, which is consensus-based. In spite of these challenges, it continues to make a valuable contribution to security as acknowledged by the Federal Council in its Foreign Policy Strategy 2024-27.

Switzerland is committed to ensuring that the OSCE's capacity to act and its inclusivity as a platform for dialogue between all participating states are maintained, which is why it has submitted its candidature to chair the organisation in 2026. The official candidature has now been transmitted in writing by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis to the OSCE's current chair, Maltese Foreign Minister Ian Borg. The Federal Council approved the candidature at its meeting last Friday, which included a consultation with the Foreign Affairs Committees of the National Council and the Council of States.

In its candidature, Switzerland underscores the fact that dialogue and cooperation with all OSCE participating states is the only way to build peaceful and sustainable solutions to wars, crises and conflicts, particularly given the current fraught security landscape. Numerous countries have encouraged Switzerland to submit a candidature for a third chairpersonship.

The participating states' representatives in Vienna will meet before the end of the year regarding the Swiss candidature for the chairpersonship in 2026. If elected, this will be Switzerland's third time in the office following previous terms in 1996 and 2014.

57 participating states between Vancouver and Vladivostok
With 57 participating states, the Vienna-based OSCE is the world's largest regional security organisation. It focuses on overcoming differences and building trust, based on the ten Helsinki Principles, which include sovereignty, non-use of force, territorial integrity, as well as respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Switzerland has been a member of the organisation since 1975, when the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was adopted in Helsinki. The CSCE was renamed the OSCE in 1994.

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