VIENNA, February 8. /TASS/. Zbigniew Rau, the foreign minister of Poland, which is holding chairmanship at the OSCE, on Tuesday said a new discussion of security in Europe with Russia made sense.
Earlier on Tuesday, Poland proposed to establish the Renewed European Security Dialogue as part of the organization. Russia didn’t support the initiative, saying it overlapped with the existing formats of interaction within the OSCE. Russia's Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich dubbed the initiative as "ill-conceived."
When asked about Russia’s criticism of the idea, Rau said, "The obligation of Chairperson in Office of the OSCE is to represent the position and views and the ideas of each and every participating state."
"It’s the only way in which you can shape a consensus," he went on to say at a news conference. "It certainly makes a lot of sense to continue a discussion that we launch today also with Russia."
Rau said he planned to discuss the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a visit to Moscow on February 15.
"I am sure that it will be a good opportunity to discuss all the issues that preoccupied all the representatives of the member-states today with Mr. Lavrov," he said. "I am very optimistic about it."
Poland proposed the dialogue, the minister said, because of "intensive diplomatic correspondence concerning the ideas which we try to develop and structure in today’s discussion."
Rau said this was a critical moment for OSCE in terms of European and global security. He said he believed there’s a risk of a serious war in Europe. The escalation of the tensions around Ukraine would mean human suffering and produce political, economic and military consequences, he said.
There has been a flurry of statements in the West and Kiev lately that Russia could invade Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they were unsubstantiated escalation and that Russia doesn’t threaten anyone. At the same time, he didn’t rule out provocations to corroborate these Western statements and warned that the use of force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine will have serious consequences.