Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on cooperation of the United Nations with regional and sub-regional organizations (OSCE)
Mr.Minister,
It’s good to see you again in the Chair of the Security Council. We also welcome the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, B.Osmani.
Mr.President,
I think it will not come as a surprise if I begin by making a point that lasting systemic and consistent actions of the US and its allies that were aimed at creating a Russophobic nationalist and neo-Nazi formation on our borders, provoked a profound crisis of the international relations system. Even if Washington, London and Brussels keep crying rabidly about alleged “unprovoked Russian aggression”, the true reasons of tectonic shifts that we are witnessing are clear to even a minimally knowledgeable observer. Aside from the anti-constitutional coup in Kiev in 2014 and 8 years of indulgence of the crimes of the Kiev regime against the peaceful population of southern and eastern Ukraine, it is also the defiance of the principle of indivisible security by the collective West for the sake of NATO’s expansion.
The question of where we are heading and what the renewed system of international relations is going to look like remains open. Yet one thing is clear. The world will no longer be unipolar. Western dominance or Pax Americana is coming to an end. Another open question is that of the place and role of international organizations in this objective process. Each of them is managing this in its own way.
The United Nations, which is basically a stronghold of multilateralism, remains a highly demanded platform for dialogue and global cooperation even despite preponderance of the West in its mechanisms and desperate attempts of Western states to impose on everyone their Russophobic agenda. The Council of Europe, however, was not able to withstand this pressure. Having turned into a spineless appensix to NATO and the European Union that obediently endorses any their decision, the CoE is on its way down to a political non-existence.
In this connection, many hopes were also pinned on the OSCE as a successor to a security forum, which played a key role in establishing the East-West dialogue in the Cold War era. Today we have a good opportunity to analyze whether those hopes were justified.
We must state that when faced with the mentioned challenges, the OSCE started to undergo the worst crisis of the entire 50 years of its existence. This is being further aggravated by attempts of certain states to use the Organization in their own political interests and turn the OSCE into a weapon in Western crusade against Russia.
However, this transformation did not happen overnight. The system of regional security, which was established within the OSCE framework and based on the principles of indivisible security “Vancouver to Vladivostok”, was truly unique by nature. The OSCE was able to respond effectively to the challenges of time, whereas efforts of responsible participants allowed to reach agreement on whatever outstanding issue. A telling example of this was the signing of a number of important documents in 1999 in Istanbul, such as the Charter for European Security and Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which was fundamental for European security and predictability in the military area.
Not everyone was willing to strengthen security in the changing world though. It is well-known that the United States that wanted to keep NATO’s dominance based on the previous version of the CFE Treaty, did not allow its allies to ratify the revitalized Treaty. Subsequent steps of Washington – withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, erosion of the Open Skies Treaty (with connivance of European states) led to further deterioration of global and regional security.
Even amidst attempts to turn the Organization into a watchdog to supervise policies of states to the east of Vienna, the OSCE remained highly demanded. There were expectations that OSCE activities would improve the situation in Europe, ensure a transition to mutually beneficial cooperation and development. Its work as an intermediary was also very much needed. OSCE was called to play a role in implementing the Minsk Agreements, which were a deal among Ukraine and the republics of the Donbas, against whom the Kiev regime had started a deadly war back in 2014. For this purpose, a rather extensive toolkit was created within the Organization to provide the sides with a platform for direct dialogue in a special Contact Group and working sub-groups. But Kiev systematically evaded a substantive dialogue with representatives of the DPR and LPR and preferred to bombard peaceful cities instead. While doing this, Kiev was “assisted” by NATO states who invested in weapons and equipment and welcomed Ukraine’s crimes against civilians.
OSCE leadership either reacted with something rather questionable or did not react at all. At the end of the day, the Organization failed at its direct task – make peace based on observance of the Minsk Agreements. What’s more, the OSCE was made an accomplice that sticks to Western approaches, plays along with one of the sides and shares sensitive data with them.
Not a surprise that after the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis in February last year, the OSCE unconditionally and obediently sided with Kiev to serve the interests of certain member-states and alliances. The entire work of the Organization turns out to be dedicated to promoting Western narratives on Ukraine. All instructions to the OSCE leadership to act publicly only in accordance with a consensually agreed position were forgotten.
Ultimately, instead of being a platform for a dialogue, the OSCE turned into a podium for Russophobic invectives and hysterical allegations against our country. “Ukrainiazation” which was particularly promoted by Poland (the previous Chairperson-in-Office) has caused a sagging of the OSCE mandate and presented the Organization’s expertise and competence from being put to good use.
Artificial frenzy around the Ukrainian problem comes at the expense of other crises, which are quite many at the OSCE space.
The situation in the Balkans keeps deteriorating. The escalation in Kosovo, which came through the fault of Pristina with silent approval of its Western sponsors, raises ever-growing concern. There is a lack of thoughtful reaction of OSCE to these events, though the Organization still remains part of the international settlement efforts under UNSC resolution 1244.
Unfortunately, there is no progress on the part of the OSCE at the Transnistrian track, in particular within “5+2” format that has been on hold since October 2019. As you know, the mission to the Republic of Moldova received its mandate 30 years ago. This time was not enough to provide tangible results to member-states. We are particularly concerned over the detrimental role of Ukraine as regards Transnistria, where Kiev claims ready to interfere, i.a. with the use of force.
We regret the politicizing of the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in the South Caucasus, which led to the unmotivated cancellation of two meetings in a row and undermined the incremental negotiations process. We view such steps as the desire of our Western colleagues to spread Ukrainian confrontation to South Caucasus and sacrifice the Geneva format to geopolitics. Such dangerous trends require prompt response from the co-chairs – the UN, OSCE and EU. For our part, we reaffirm our commitment to the Geneva International Discussions as a unique platform designed to ensure a constant direct dialogue between Tbilisi and Sukhum and Tskhinval. The alternative to a negotiating vacuum is the degradation of the situation on the ground.
Through the fault of the United States and France, the OSCE Minsk Group ceased its activities. At the same time, the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, including in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, as well as on the Armenian-Azerbaijani line of contact and in the dialogue between official Baku and Yerevan, continues to cause serious concern. We reaffirm the importance of strict observance of the entire set of 2020-2022 agreements between the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. The Russian Federation is ready to provide Azerbaijan and Armenia with all the necessary assistance both at the political level and on the ground, with the help of the commando of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
Unfortunately, North Macedonia as the Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE has not yet succeeded in shaping a unifying agenda and cannot afford status-neutral approaches. For example, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia did not hesitate to take part in a political performance on the "anniversary" of the Bucha provocation, thus grossly violating the mandate of OSCE Chair.
At the same time, both the OSCE Chair and Secretariat remain shamefully silent about politically motivated crackdown of the Kiev regime on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the exact same way, they did not react to the lawlessness of the Maidan authorities and such crimes of Ukrainian nationalists as burning people alive in the Odessa Trade Union House that was committed precisely 9 years ago. Today this tragedy repeats, and the pressure of Ukrainian state institutions and special services on the church, interference in the activities of religious communes and freedom of conscience does not receive any assessments, despite obvious violations by Ukraine of its international legal obligations, including those adopted in the OSCE.
Mr.President,
Shortsighted confrontational policy of the US-led Western alliance of states not only provokes a crisis throughout the OSCE space, but also puts the Organization itself before a vital choice. Either it will tackle the crucial task of building a sustainable European security architecture based on the principle of its indivisibility, enshrined in many OSCE documents, including the 1999 Istanbul Charter and the 2010 Astana Declaration, or it will continue to play along with the Western camp, which understands security as uncontrolled expansion of the aggressive NATO alliance and widespread imposition of Western political, economic and human rights perspectives.
Nevertheless, we retain our faith in the potential of the OSCE and have not abandoned attempts at dialogue at the Vienna platform. One simply needs to attend a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council to see the fundamental difference between the hysterical and insulting statements by Western delegations and the balanced and fact-based reports by our Vienna colleagues. We will keep reporting on the real situation. As the saying goes, he who has ears to hear – let him hear. The OSCE still has a chance to play a role in bringing together points of view that sometimes may be opposite and irreconcilable and developing a platform for dialogue and a framework for peaceful co-existence that suits everyone. Just as Soviet, American and European negotiators did in the early to mid-1970s. In order to do this, we must not only stop demonizing our opponents, but also abandon the logic of confrontation and zero-sum games.
As for the topic of the meeting, which is the UN-OSCE interaction under Chapter 8 of the UN Charter, we are convinced that it should be transparent and accountable to member states, contribute to unifying agenda, and not promote confrontational narratives.
This being said, we remind that the main responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security rests upon the UN Security Council. It seems that someone in Vienna has forgotten about this, having indulged in anti-Russian ventures. The sooner the OSCE gets back to a relevant, calm and respectful rhetoric, the more chances it will have to fit into the renewed world order. We would very much want to believe that those in and around Vienna are fully aware of that.
Thank you.
