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Lavrov excoriates Poland’s ‘anti-chairmanship’ for deeply harming OSCE

The top diplomat noted that over recent years, OSCE chairs have not been eager to somehow "break the negative trend" towards fragmentation of the OSCE space and the organization’s marginalization

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Nothing has brought more harm to the OSCE than Poland’s presidency in 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference on European security issues on Thursday.

"I can assert that Poland’s anti-chairmanship at the OSCE will occupy the most unseemly place in the history of this organization. Nobody has ever brought such damage to the OSCE while at its helm," the Russian top diplomat maintained.

Lavrov noted that over recent years, OSCE chairs have not been eager to somehow "break the negative trend" towards fragmentation of the OSCE space and the organization’s marginalization. "On the contrary, the Swedes chaired last year and already then they openly began to act not like honest brokers but like active participants of Western policy in the OSCE, subordinating the OSCE to the interests of the US and Brussels. Essentially, it was precisely the Swedes who began preparing the OSCE’s funeral. While our Polish neighbors this entire year have been diligently digging a grave for this organization, destroying the remnants of the consensus culture," he added.

The Russian top diplomat stressed that Warsaw’s actions grossly violate the rules of procedure and decisions by the OSCE’s policymaking bodies. "Back in 2002, at a ministerial meeting in Porto, Portugal, a special document was approved on how a Chairman-in-Office should act, that he is obligated to avoid non-compliance of his actions with the positions coordinated by all member states, that is, the consensus, and has to ensure that his actions and statements account for the entire range of opinions of all the member states," he noted.

Lavrov also reiterated that on November 23, within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the top diplomats of six countries approved a special statement "in which they expressed a principled assessment of these obscene actions by Poland’s chairmanship." "We are aware that a whole range of other OSCE countries share this opinion," he noted.

A two-day 29th session of the OSCE Ministerial Meeting kicks off in Lodz, Poland on Thursday. The Polish Foreign Ministry denied entry to Russia’s delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Moscow 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 Poland’s decision.