Moscow intends to end Western dominance in the OSCE
Russia will no longer support Western candidates for positions in the leadership of the OSCE, where, due to disputes between member states and behind-the-scenes intrigues, the heads of all its main structures, including the Secretary General, have lost their posts.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, this was stated in an interview with Kommersant by Russia's permanent representative to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich, who noted that the current crisis in the OSCE is the logical result of the lack of desire to accept the arguments of other states.
He recalled that in 2017, at an informal ministerial meeting in Mauerbach, Austria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear that Moscow was agreeing to four appointees from the Western camp so that the situation would not reach a dead end at all.
“After all, at that time there were very strong candidates from the CIS countries, but they were removed for political reasons. In the West, they simply could not imagine that, for example, a representative of Belarus could become the Secretary General. This is wild for them. They believe that the OSCE is a Western institution, like NATO and the EU.
But the eastern countries in the organization also have the right to count on appointments. And during the entire period of the OSCE’s existence, not a single representative of the Commonwealth has been at the head of its executive structures! This is obvious discrimination and gross injustice. Then in Mauerbach, the Russian delegation made it clear that it would not block appointments, but would not allow such an imbalance again,” the diplomat said.
He clarified that Russia, most likely, will not nominate anyone, but will support collective candidates from the CIS, and added that we are talking about all four key positions in the OSCE leadership.
“At the same time, we proceed from the fact that there will be no more “package solutions”. Each leader has his own mandate, and candidates for the relevant positions must be considered individually,” Lukashevich concluded.
Note that personnel decisions in the OSCE are made by consensus - the approval of each member of the organization is required
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