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Problems stacking up in OSCE space — Lavrov

The top diplomat pointed out that "the aspirations of NATO states to dominate on a global scale" are clearly visible

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that a large number of issues have accumulated in the space of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"Today in Lodz, an event opens which used to be called a meeting of the Council of the foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Now is a good opportunity to see what role this organization has been playing since its creation," he told a press conference on European security issues on Thursday.

The Russian top diplomat reiterated that the Helsinki Final Act was signed in 1975 and was seen as "the greatest achievement of diplomacy of that time, as the harbinger of a new era in relations between the East and the West." "But there have been more and more problems since then. And today, there are an enormous amount of issues in what is called the OSCE now," he noted.

According to the Russian foreign minister, these problems have a deep historical background and are rooted in the late Soviet period at the end of the 1980s - early 1990s, "when the amount of lost opportunities surpassed all conceivable expectations of the most pessimistic analysts."

Lavrov pointed out that "the aspirations of NATO states to dominate on a global scale" are clearly visible. "The Indo-Pacific region has already been announced as NATO’s responsibility zone. So, what is happening on our continent, of course, interests not only Europeans, not only the residents of North America but also the representatives of every other world region as well. Above all, the developing ones that want to understand which initiatives with regards to their regions NATO countries may prepare," he explained.

The two-day 29th session of the OSCE Ministerial Meeting kicks off in Lodz on Thursday. The Polish Foreign Ministry refused to allow a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to enter the republic. The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed the move as unprecedented, inflammatory and incompatible with the status of the organization’s chairmanship. Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich will head the country’s delegation to the meeting in the wake of Warsaw’s decision.

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