Agenda item: “Meeting dedicated to the closing of the Croatian Presidency”
Mr. Chairman,
Over the past six months, the negative trends of the last decade have become even more acute in the military-political dimension of European security. The countries of the “collective West”, led by the United States, are increasingly fiercely resisting the irreversible process of the world’s transition to multipolarity. This is accompanied by provocative steps fraught with aggravation of international tension, which are caused by their desire, in violation of the fundamental norms and principles of international law, to plant the concept of their own “rules-based world order” as an alternative basis for the modern world order.
The volume of military and military-technical assistance The North Atlantic Alliance states confirm to Kiev their intention to wage a “proxy war” against Russia “to the last Ukrainian”, thus trying to maintain global dominance, restrain our country and create conditions for inflicting a “strategic defeat” on it. NATO’s deep involvement in the Ukrainian conflict is no longer in doubt. The alliance attaches particular importance to providing the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with real-time data on the operational structure and nature of movements of groups of Russian troops. The average intensity of the use of reconnaissance aircraft of the alliance countries along our borders has increased to 190 sorties per month. NATO officers are involved in processing intelligence, as well as planning military operations in the interests of Kiev. This is confirmed by the regularly revealed facts of deaths and injuries of foreign military specialists working at the control points of the Ukrainian army.
At the same time, the North Atlantic Alliance, led by the United States, is no longer limited to the war that it unleashed against Russia at the hands of the illegal authorities in Kiev, but is already trying to destabilize the entire OSCE region. They have almost completely destroyed the agreements in the field of arms control in Europe. Against this background, Washington’s decision to begin deploying new American medium- and shorter-range missile systems, as well as hypersonic weapons, on German territory from 2026 carries strategic risks. How much more does Europe need to confirm that Washington is putting the entire continent “under arms”?
The Russian Federation is well aware that all of the above is part of the overall multidimensional strategy of the Western alliance to harm our country and our citizens, and at any cost. We well remember the statements of US Secretary of State E. Blinken threatening the Russians that they should “suffer as a result of American sanctions.” The opponents could not and will not be able to achieve this. In the face of the defiant behavior of the “collective West”, which is clearly not interested in finding a “peaceful alternative” and poses a threat to Russia’s sovereignty, our determination to ensure our rights by all available means will only grow stronger. After all, it is known that the harder you try to squeeze the spring, the stronger the recoil will be.
This statement is also relevant for the functioning of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation (FSB).
The current security situation inevitably affects the state of affairs within the FSB, and indeed the entire OSCE, which have ceased to be of interest to Western interlocutors as a platform for professional discussion of issues of stability in the military sphere in Europe. Now, not only in global politics, but also here, there is a principle according to which fulfilling the will of the self-proclaimed hegemon provides a wide field for action, and if someone defends their national interests, then they try to plunge him into illusory isolation. As a result, due to the fault of the initiators of the confrontation, our Vienna platform is gradually losing the opportunity for effective work.
These trends have worsened during the current session of the Forum, when the Presidency Croatia has clearly confirmed in the face of the entire pan-European community: not all countries represented in this Hall recognize the key principle The Charter of the United Nations – the sovereign equality of States. Starting back in March this year with open threats against the Russian Delegation in the spirit of “you are alone, but there are many of us”, later Croatian colleagues moved on to various manipulations incompatible with diplomatic practice, including the provision of open pressure in violation of the legitimate rights of our country as an OSCE participating state.
Egregious in this context are the incidents that occurred three times in a row with the non-admission of Russian high-ranking representatives as speakers online, as well as the shameless refusal to invite Russian students as listeners to the meetings of the Forum. We have heard your argument, Mr. Chairman, according to which, since 2022, speeches in the video conferencing format are allegedly prohibited at the FSB. Nevertheless, we recommend that you and the members of the Troika, with whom you coordinated all your decisions, familiarize yourself with the following documents:
– Letters of the Belgian Presidency of the FSB dated September 23 and October 14, 2022 (FSC.GAL/79/22 and FSC.GAL/86/22);
– Letters from the Bosnian Presidency dated March 7 and 17, 2023 (FSC.GAL/18/23 and FSC.GAL/18/23/ Add.1).
All these documents are united by one idea – to provide an opportunity for representatives of the capitals of all participating States, without exception, to take the floor when electronically connecting to plenary meetings to ensure inclusiveness and multilateralism. But you, Mr. Chairman, have been promoting your one-sided understanding of the principles of the FSB for months, depriving states that have expressed a desire to contribute to its work of the legitimate right to receive such an opportunity.
We proceed from the fact that we have the right to demand that all subsequent Chairs of the Forum maintain maximum equidistance and act on behalf of all 57 participating States. We also have every reason to expect them to take actions aimed at smoothing out the contradictions between the delegations. We confirm that in case of repetition of discriminatory, i.e. We emphasize that, in full compliance with the Rules of Procedure of the OSCE, we will take proportionate counter–steps against our country, contrary to the UN Charter, until the balance of rights of the participating States of the Organization is restored.
Another disturbing trend at the Forum is related to the fact that, contrary to its mandate, the Western participating states intend to consolidate their non-core preferences on our military-political platform. They completely forgot the canonical tasks of the FSB, laid down in the Helsinki Document of 1992, to negotiate conventional arms control, disarmament, confidence– and security-building measures, as well as ways to ensure military stability in Europe. Instead, under various plausible pretexts, for example, the implementation of the OSCE comprehensive security concept, they are trying to impose on the Forum functions that are not peculiar to it in the field of “gender” equality, climate, information security, etc. As practice has shown, discussing these issues does not bring absolutely any benefit to the work of the FSB. And what good can there be from repeating hackneyed Russophobic mantras and, for example, a gross distortion of the very essence of the “female” UN Security Council Resolution 1325? All this causes irreparable damage to the credibility of our site.
In this regard, Mr. Chairman, in order to preserve the original mandate of the FSB, which was signed by the heads of State and Government of the OSCE participating States, we officially inform that in the future we will not be able to join the consensus on draft agendas of meetings to which topics outside the mandate of our decision-making autonomous body are submitted for discussion.
Future Chairmen of the Forum, as well as Western delegations influencing their activities, should realize that attempts to adjust mechanisms originally designed to ensure military and political security in Europe on the basis of cooperation for the purpose of serving the interests of a narrow group of states and solving the problems of confrontation with Russia lead nowhere.
We are convinced that, despite the current international turbulence, the Western states will sooner or later stop their unbridled anti-Russian campaign and realize that there is no alternative to establishing an equal and mutually respectful dialogue. In this regard, we note the decision of the Croatian Presidency at the 1044th meeting of the FSB to give the “green light” to demonstrate a pre-recorded video message by Deputy Director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry A.Y.Mazur. A return to a balanced approach is a prerequisite for preserving the FSB as an essential element of the system of international multilateral “disarmament” instruments that would be able to respond to military and political challenges. It is precisely necessary to begin by reducing tensions and restoring at least a minimum level of dialogue between the participating States.
If no significant progress is made at the FSB in the future, this will inevitably ricochet throughout the OSCE, since the original idea and the “core” of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 are precisely the military-political obligations of states. In this regard, we count on the balanced approach of the Maltese Current Chairmanship of the Organization.
We are convinced that if there is political will, the FSB participants can and should overcome their differences and reach mutually acceptable solutions that open the way to restoring normal work. Russia is interested in ensuring that the conversation on such a vital topic for everyone as the creation of a system of indivisible security and the assertion in world affairs of the principle that the security of some cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of others, receives tangible development, including at the Forum. There are chances for this. We expect that the “Troika” of Forum Chairmen, which will include Croatia, Denmark and Spain from September this year, will contribute to such work. We wish them success and confirm our readiness for diplomatic cooperation based on the principles of reciprocity.
Thank you for your attention.
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