WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014\u00a0An Erie County native is representing the United States on the international stage, with the rank of ambassador.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Darrell Owens was officially sworn in back in July as America\u2019s representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his first interview as ambassador,\u00a0Owens\u00a0spoke from Austria with Erie News Now Washington correspondent Brendan Scanland about life in Vienna, his new role, and what he misses most about Erie County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From Waterford, Pennsylvania, to Vienna, Austria-\u00a0and several stops in between-\u00a0Ambassador Darrell Owens said\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0getting acclimated to his new role in Europe, while\u00a0working hard to deliver on the mandate from Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mandate from Washington and for the president, secretary\u00a0when\u00a0I\u00a0came out here was\u00a0\u2018get the organization back to work again.\u00a0Figure out how to make it work.\u00a0If\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0going to be involved\u00a0in this organization,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0going to be there to do the work and do\u00a0a good job,\u2019\u201d\u00a0Amb. Owens said.<\/p>\n
Propelled by an impressive resume that includes years of military service, positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs and on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Owens is leaning on his experience to help the 57-member organization live up to its potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole career so far has been built on relationships. And\u00a0I think this\u00a0is a great tool to be able to bring the OSCE,\u00a0to be able to work with all\u00a057 participating states, including Russia, including Belarus,\u201d\u00a0he said. \u201cBecause you\u2019ve got\u00a0to\u00a0sit down with them,\u00a0you\u2019ve got\u00a0to start\u00a0that dialog, you\u2019ve got to start someplace to get to the mission and the goal at hand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similar to\u00a0the Trump administration\u2019s efforts\u00a0with\u00a0NATO, Amb. Owens is working to get other OSCE members to boost their dollar contributions to the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0working\u00a0very hard\u00a0to change right now, especially when about 21 other member states combine for less than 1% of our budget.\u00a0So\u00a0the U.S. is really carrying the weight, along with four or five other nations, really carrying the weight of the entire organization on the bill-paying side,\u201d said Owens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OSCE\u2019s mission\u00a0dates back to\u00a0the 1975 Helsinki Accords.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, it was about trying to figure out how to connect the United States and the Soviet Union together through a regional European security architecture.\u00a0It has evolved since then. The mission has changed, especially with the second invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this organization itself has been right at the forefront,\u00a0from our special monitoring mission in Ukraine to now our efforts\u00a0to\u00a0try to look at how we can be ready post-conflict day one,\u201d said Owens.<\/p>\n
Outside of the United Nations, OSCE is the only organization where both Russia and Ukraine are members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, this is a completely consensus-run organization. So having them agree on things, including the peace process going forward and what we can do afterwards to win the peace is incredibly important,\u201d Owens said.<\/p>\n
Amb. Owens said he\u00a0remains\u00a0focused on improving communication,\u00a0cooperation\u00a0and diplomacy within OSCE.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLowering the temperature in the room, talking to each other as diplomats and working through problems in an ordinary way, just like we would back in Erie between neighbors,\u201d he said. \u201cIf\u00a0you\u2019ve got\u00a0an issue,\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got to be able to talk to everybody.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0harder to do when you have two member states that are at war with each other.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0nothing that\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0be overcome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014\u00a0An Erie County native is representing the United States on the international stage, with the rank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2288,136,138,137,2287,2286,2289],"class_list":["post-300586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-bureau","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-u-s-capitol","tag-washington-d-c","tag-washington-d-c-bureau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}