Skopje, Nov. 30, (dpa/GNA) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the deep crisis in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – largely as a result of Moscow’s veto on appointments and budgets – is solely the fault of Western states.
“The OSCE is being turned into an appendage of NATO and the European Union,” he said on Thursday at the organization’s annual meeting in Skopje. “The organization is on the edge of a precipice.”
The “Western political elite” had decided in favour of eastern NATO enlargement and thus against the OSCE, Lavrov said. Several delegates from other states left the room during his speech.
The foreign ministers of Ukraine and the three Baltic states stayed away entirely from the annual meeting of foreign ministers in protest at Lavrov’s presence.
The organization has 57 members, including both Ukraine and Russia. The group has been in crisis since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, since when the OSCE’s ability to act has been blocked by Moscow’s veto power in the body. Generally, OSCE decisions require the unanimous consensus of all members.
Russia’s veto policy has prevented the Baltic NATO state Estonia from taking over the OSCE chairmanship for 2024. A diplomatic agreement on the neutral state of Malta was only reached on Monday. The compromise solution is to be formally approved in Skopje.
The OSCE is struggling with a severe lack of funding, Secretary General Helga Schmid warned at the annual meeting.
“We are losing staff across the organization – people who want to support the work of the OSCE but simply cannot afford to do so,” the German diplomat said.
The OSCE only averted insolvency this year thanks to donations from its member states, she said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on the members of the OSCE to oppose the blockade by Russia.
The organization’s decision-making processes need to be strengthened “even if Russia has put massive obstacles in the way of the OSCE’s work over the last year and a half,” Baerbock said on the sidelines of the annual meeting.
“The Russian government’s perfidious game is and was also to destroy organizations that rely on peaceful coexistence and cooperation, with its brutal war against Ukraine,” Baerbock said, adding: “And we will not allow that to happen.”
In 2023, Germany provided €21 million ($23 million) to ensure that the OSCE could continue to function technically, and carry out its work on the ground, Baerbock said.
The fact that Russia had not succeeded in destroying the OSCE is “an important contribution” to the global peace order. “And this peace order must continue,” she said.
This also means working together to ensure that there is another chairmanship for next year and top positions that can also implement the work of the OSCE, she said.
During the conference, Baerbock called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop his war against Ukraine. “Stop the unspeakable suffering you are bringing upon millions of people.”
Lavrov was not in attendance during her speech, which Baerbock commented on.
She called him out by saying that as at other international meetings, he was obviously only in the room “when he himself was speaking, but not to listen to others.”
Stopping the war “does not require negotiations, it certainly does not require concessions from Ukraine,” Baerbock said.
“What is needed is a decision by Russia to abide by the basic principles of this organization, the OSCE, to withdraw its troops and recommit itself to peace.”
Baerbock also criticized that three members of the OSCE observer mission in Ukraine were still being held captive by Russia, which was also “a brutal violation of [the] common OSCE rules,” she added.
In order to maintain the OSCE’s ability to work, an extension of the terms of office of Schmid and the representatives for democracy, media freedom and minorities is necessary, she said.
Schmid and her three colleagues would otherwise have to vacate their posts at the beginning of December. “If a compromise is needed, then we are ready. But compromises of compromises are no longer compromises, they are a complete blockade.”
“Saving the OSCE means safeguarding our people. This is our responsibility,” the minister wrapped up her speech.
GNA