DUBLIN, December 6 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday will take part in a regular meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which will be held in Dublin on December 6-7.
The meeting participants will consider the fulfilment of the tasks set by the summit in Astana in 2010 aimed at the formation in the OSCE space of a single and indivisible “security community” free of dividing lines, conflicts, and zones with different levels of security. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich, Moscow hopes that “the formation of a ‘security community’ will contribute to the OSCE’s efforts to counter transnational threats.” “The OSCE anti-drug concept, which was approved in July on our initiative and that is to be approved by the Ministerial Council in Dublin, has become Russia’s contribution to this effort,” the diplomat said. “It fixed the OSCE tasks to combat drug trafficking, including the Afghan opiates and synthetic drugs.” “We also favour the strengthening the OSCE’s capabilities in the fight against terrorism, organised crime, including trafficking in human organs and tissues,” Lukashevich added.
“The Russian side intends to express concern over the growing radicalism in the OSCE countries,” Lukashevich said. “We will also insist on the observance of the rights of national minorities, including the rights of compatriots in Latvia and Estonia. The phenomenon of ‘statelessness’ in these countries is shameful for today’s Europe and the world.”
Moscow believes that “the OSCE election observation work requires serious reform.” “We call for a comparative analysis of election laws in all OSCE countries and the development of common rules for election observation by ODIHR, which must be approved by the OSCE decision-making bodies,” said the RF Foreign Ministry spokesman. “Monitoring should be conducted in all countries on equal terms.”
According to Lukashevich, the fight against corruption is among Russia’s priorities. Moscow believes that “the OSCE is capable of complementing the work of relevant international instruments in this field, in particular, the United Nations Convention against Corruption, without duplicating these mechanisms.”
“During the economic crisis, the importance of socio-economic aspects of human rights is growing,” the diplomat said. “We call for their consideration at the OSCE.”
Lukashevich pointed out that the “invasion of privacy of citizens, including wiretaps and interception of correspondence is an important problem in the sphere of information and communication technologies.” According to him, Russia “has put forward a corresponding draft decision and hopes for the development of the dialogue on this issue in the OSCE.”
The Ministerial Council meeting in Dublin will for the first time be held in an expanded format. On November 21, Mongolia, which previously had the cooperation partner status, has become the 57th member of the OSCE. “With its admission the OSCE has moved beyond the historic area of ·· responsibility,” Lukashevich said. “This step is not a precedent, but it urges the development of the Organisation membership criteria.”
On the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Dublin, Sergei Lavrov plans to meet on December 6 with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Touching upon the questions that will be in the focus, Lavrov told reporters: “We always discuss everything.” A source in the RF delegation said that the meeting will be held at the initiative of the American side.
In addition, Lavrov will hold bilateral meetings with the leadership of the OSCE, the European Union and the foreign ministers of the OSCE member states.