WARSAW, December 25. /TASS/. Taking over the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Chairmanship on January 1, 2022, Poland will raise the issues of current tensions between the West and Russia, Maciej Ras, a political analyst and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw, told TASS.

"As Chair, Poland will try to raise the ranking of such problems as de-escalation of the crisis around Ukraine, the tensions in the relationship between Ukraine and Russia, the West and Russia, the improvement of security in Ukraine, which is easy to predict," he said. "Moreover, I believe Poland will raise the issue of new threats, for example, concerning what is going on on the border of Belarus and European countries," the expert added.

"Probably, some issues that we are not aware of yet, will also be put on this agenda as something can always happen in the area of security, and not only in Eastern Europe," he noted.

"The OSCE no longer plays such an important role in the system of European security that it used to be associated with, say, in the 1990s. It will virtually not be the priority of the Polish international policy, though considering the fact of tensions currently existing in the relations between the West and Russia, the threats related to the crisis around Ukraine, Poland will clearly raise those issues," Ras explained.

Speaking about how Warsaw will establish the dialogue with Russia as the OSCE Chair, the expert sad that "Poland would try in its relations with Russia to raise the issues of de-escalation in Europe, of improving the security level that is currently under threat." "This is always being discussed, with both sides speaking about it," he noted.

Asked whether the Polish-Russian relations that have not been very favorable in recent years, affect the quality of this dialogue, Ras said that "it is possible to conduct a dialogue in various conditions."

"There are Western European countries that speak about a dialogue with Russia even in a situation when the relations are unfriendly, and this dialogue produces not much. But a dialogue is underway, which is why a dialogue may be held by diplomats," he said.