Skopje, 1 December 2023 (TDI): Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed the West for derailing the efficacy of OSCE for its interests in his address to the 30th Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Ministerial Conference held in North Macedonia on Thursday.
In his speech, Lavrov mentioned that the Helsinki Final Act will be 50 years old in just over a year. Unfortunately, the OSCE is nearing this milestone in a deplorable state, and its prospects continue to be dubious.
He went on to say that tragically, Western political elites hijacked the role of controllers of humanity’s fate and made an ignorant choice in favor of NATO over the OSCE. They advocated a containment ideology, geopolitical games of zero-sum, and the leader-follower logic.
The bloc’s rash eastward expansion, which began following the disintegration of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, was a significant component of this strategy.
Sergey Lavrov stated that the actual aims of Western politicians were once again apparent when Washington and Brussels refused Russia’s proposals for legally obligatory security assurances in Europe in December 2021.
He asserted that to smash the Russian economy, the US and its European allies have imposed numerous anti-Russia sanctions, making any meaningful East-West practical collaboration in the area that was once our common territory untenable.
Russia’s Foreign Minister further added that the Kyiv government represents Washington’s egoistic investment in restraining Russia and settling its issues at the cost of others. This refers to the elimination of economic competitors, mainly the EU.
He highlighted, “The present predicament is a direct result of our Western neighbors’ constant efforts to maintain their supremacy, as they freely use the OSCE to forcefully advance their self-serving interests while deliberately undermining the basic tenets of mutual agreement and the culture of diplomacy”.
Lavrov lamented that there simply are no compelling reasons to be positive right now. In essence, the OSCE is being restructured to become a subsidiary of NATO and the EU. This organization is on the verge of collapse.
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He concluded his talk by posing the stern question: Does it seem logical to make any attempt to resurrect it? Can it ever adapt to objective world realities and re-emerge as a platform for addressing regional security challenges based on the Helsinki Final Act principles, most notably the equality of all participating countries?
Despite the OSCE sinking under the antagonistic agenda imposed on it, Eurasian integration and genuine cooperation centered around an equitable balance of interests are happening on our continent in productive contexts.
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