VIENNA, December 5. /TASS/. The OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Vienna revealed a clear "divide" between those prepared to "trample" all commitments and the few who wish to preserve the organization, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said at the session.
Russia’s envoy recalled the article published on December 3 by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in which he described in detail the deplorable state of affairs within the OSCE.
"We will not repeat ourselves. We would only point out that the discussions at the Ministerial Council confirmed a clear divide: between those who, in the name of bloc-based interests and the so-called rules-based order, are prepared to trample all OSCE commitments and norms of international law and to abuse the organization’s tools to vilify those they dislike, and those - unfortunately few - who are still trying to save the OSCE in its original mission of constructively uniting the countries of the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasia within a common framework of indivisible security."
Earlier, Lavrov called the state of affairs within the OSCE "desperate" in an article for Rossiyskaya Gazeta ahead of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Vienna. He noted that the organization has failed to act as an honest broker in resolving regional conflicts and will become meaningless if the West abolishes the consensus rule. Lavrov stated that there is still a chance to prevent the collapse of the OSCE, but to achieve this, all participating states must return to observing the Helsinki principles of equal and mutually respectful dialogue.