Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s participation in the upcoming OSCE Ministerial Council meeting

The 31st OSCE Ministerial Council meeting (Ministerial Council) will be held in Valletta, Republic of Malta, on December 5-6, with the participation of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Ministerial Council is second only to the summit in terms of the hierarchy of the organisation’s governing bodies and is convened in years between the summits (the most recent summit was held in Astana in 2010). The Ministerial Council meetings are usually held in a country that holds the OSCE Chairpersonship for the year in question. In 2024, the Republic of Malta holds the Chairmanship-in-Office. The Ministerial Council reviews the status of the implementation of the earlier adopted decisions, outlines tasks for the medium term, and ensures political dialogue among the participating states. All decisions in the organisation are based on consensus, which cannot be violated, because it is a prerequisite for preserving the OSCE as a viable entity.

During the forthcoming Ministerial Council meeting, the Russian delegation will focus on assessing the possibility of overcoming the organisation’s crisis on the eve of its 50th anniversary. The Russian delegation looks forward to having a candid discussion of the backlog of issues and ways to resolve them under fundamentally new conditions, while respecting the interests of all participating states free from the teacher-disciple approach, and so on.

Special attention will be paid to failure to issue visas to members of the Russian delegation who planned to attend various OSCE events, including the upcoming Ministerial Council meeting. Cancelling, right before the event, a visa that had been earlier issued by the Maltese Chairpersonship to Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, allegedly due to circumstances beyond their control, was unprecedented.

Replacing key organisation’s events, such as the Annual Security Review Conference, or the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, with non-consensual imitation formats has been on for the third straight year.

The current institutional crisis within the OSCE was triggered by the destructive actions of a number of Western countries that are using this platform to promote their own agenda in disregard of the fundamental principles underlying the Organisation’s functioning, which must be abided by all participating states regardless of their membership in other international entities. Since 2022, the Ukrainianisation of the OSCE’s agenda has paralysed its activities across the three security dimensions, namely, political and military, economic and environmental, and humanitarian.

At the meetings of the OSCE’s decision-making bodies - the Permanent Council and the Forum for Security Cooperation - Russian representatives have been regularly raising the most pressing OSCE-related issues, such as combatting terrorism and drug trafficking, protecting traditional values, countering manifestations of neo-fascism and neo-Nazism, preventing the falsification of history, protecting the rights of ethnic minorities and believers, and ensuring access to information. The participating states must unite their efforts in these areas.

The Russian Federation regularly provides objective updates to the participating states’ delegations about the war crimes committed by the Kiev regime, the ongoing all-out campaign in Ukraine to cancel the Russian language and Russian culture, the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and reprisals against the national media. The Russian Federation makes public information about the perilous policy pursued by the countries that make up the Western alliance to prolong the Ukraine conflict by way of providing mass-scale military support for the Kiev regime.

The conceptual foundations for building equal and indivisible security were laid down in the main CSCE/OSCE documents, such as the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990), the Charter for European Security (1999) and the Astana Declaration (2010). A range of agreements covering a wide range of political and military issues falling within the purview of the first “basket” was developed as well. In 1990, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty), which eliminated the Cold War military constructs, was signed; the Vienna Document (VD) on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures (CSBMs) was continuously improved. The Open Skies Treaty (OST) was concluded in 1992. In the same year, the FSC was established and a number of fundamental documents were endorsed, such as the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security; Principles Governing Conventional Arms Transfers; Global Exchange of Military Information; and Stabilising Measures for Localised Crisis Situations. The documents on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and Stockpiles of Conventional Ammunition (SCA) were approved in 2000. These documents have largely remained inoperative due to the West’s destructive policies and its push to introduce elements of NATO’s bloc policy into the organisation.

The second - economic and environmental - dimension, which is designed to promote the harmonisation of the respective interests of the participating states, is, in fact, used by the EU to promote its own agenda.

A fairly disheartening situation has developed in the third- humanitarian - “basket,” which continues to be hit hard by overt thematic and geographical distortions focusing on the issues that lie far beyond the priorities that the majority of the participating states have high on their list.

The OSCE’s specific executive bodies, such as the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), and the Representative on Freedom of the Media, continue to see major complaints coming their way. These institutions have repeatedly manifested their political bias. The ODIHR stands out distinctly in this context, as it is known for conducting openly biased monitoring of election processes in the countries that lie “east of Vienna” and making advance preparations for “anticipated” conclusions on their outcomes. The Representative on Freedom of the Media is also known for practicing double standards and conspicuous silence when it comes to unfair treatment of non-Western media within the Organisation’s space. Russia does not see the HCNM paying proper attention to matters of oppressing ethnic minorities.

Given the current state of the OSCE, we can hardly talk about it playing any meaningful role amid the ongoing profound reformatting of the world. The organisation would undoubtedly benefit from close cooperation with formats such as the SCO, BRICS and the CIS, which are operating based on fundamentally new approaches.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold bilateral meetings with foreign ministers from a number of countries on the sidelines of the Ministerial Council in Valletta.