MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) does nothing for Russia as a security structure, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"The OSCE as a structure, which never became an organization because it suited the West to keep it in a vague, amoebic state, when it can be easily manipulated, has ceased to do its job," the top diplomat said at a government session in the Federation Council.

In his opinion, the OSCE produced some useful agreements, for example, in the areas of arms control, information exchange, transparency and trust-building measures. However, according to Lavrov, "all of them were destroyed or trashed" by the West. "As a security organization, it [the OSCE] adds no value for us," the minister said.

At the same time, Lavrov pointed out that "in the rest of the Eurasian continent, where the economic and financial basis for the further development of this vast space is being created, the conditions are being created to deal with Eurasian security." He stressed that these issues are largely addressed by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which was created as a border cooperation organization of five countries. The top Russian diplomat also noted that the CIS has an anti-terrorist center, and "the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO - TASS), by definition, deals with security issues and establishes relations with its partners in the region."

New Eurasian security initiatives

Lavrov also recalled Kazakhstan's initiative: the Meeting on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, which Kazakhstan now wants to transform into an organization. "This is exactly what should have happened with the OSCE, but when the OSCE came into being, the West did not want to accept any charter, contrary to our fifteen years of efforts," he pointed out.

The top diplomat emphasized that Moscow supports the Astana initiative. "But it should be a Eurasian organization," the minister noted. In his opinion, "the Europeans decided to give up these natural competitive advantages [of the Eurasian continent], they preferred to let their competitive edge be suppressed by the Americans, who make no bones about this." "If they had decided to behave correctly on a continental basis and develop equal projects, they would be in a completely different situation today," the top diplomat underscored.

"That is why we are working to make Eurasian security a reality. We will not isolate ourselves from anyone. We will simply build security with those who do not want to ensure their security at the expense of others, with those who on the Eurasian continent, unlike the OSCE, are ready to implement the principles of indivisibility of security, which were proclaimed in the OSCE and then trampled by the expansion of NATO, and this process ended with the beginning of the war against us in Ukraine," Lavrov said.