Senate leaders back Darrell Owens nomination for U.S. OSCE envoy role

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Senate backs Owens OSCE envoy

Highlights

Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker urge immediate Senate confirmation of Darrell Owens as U.S. OSCE envoy before July's The Hague assembly.
They cite Russia's aggression in Ukraine, including territorial annexation and civilian attacks, as urgent reasons for U.S. leadership at the OSCE.
The nomination is tied to maintaining U.S. influence in a key multilateral forum addressing security, democratic accountability, and human rights threats across Europe and beyond.

Push for confirmation before The Hague meeting

In a statement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority press office, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, the committee's ranking member, and Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, say the Senate should confirm Owens without delay.

They say American leadership at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is especially important as the forum addresses security, sovereignty, human rights and democratic accountability across Europe, Central Asia and North America. The senators describe Owens as understanding both the threat posed by Russia's aggression and the need for the United States to stand with Ukraine and democratic allies.

Shaheen and Wicker also say the United States should have its representative in place before parliamentarians from across the OSCE region gather in The Hague. They frame the July assembly as a timely venue for confronting urgent transatlantic challenges, including Russia's war against Ukraine, human rights abuses, democratic backsliding, disinformation and cyberattacks.

Broader security and diplomatic stakes

The senators link the nomination to the wider role of the OSCE, which they say has been anchored for five decades by the Helsinki principles on sovereignty, territorial integrity, peaceful dispute resolution, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In their statement, they say Russia's actions in Ukraine violate those commitments, citing attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory, attacks on civilians, the abduction of Ukrainian children and disinformation campaigns aimed at weakening democratic institutions. They argue that, at a time when authoritarian powers are testing transatlantic resolve, Washington needs a strong and principled voice in one of the few multilateral forums focused on holding governments accountable for such violations.

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