Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau has invited his colleagues from the 57 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) to the annual Council of Ministers in a symbolic building in his hometown of Łódź: in the former turbine hall of a power plant, built in Art Nouveau style at the beginning of the 20th century th century, converted into the culture and event center EC 1, the delegates from Europe, Central Asia and North America will discuss on Thursday how things should and can continue with the OSCE, 48 years after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act.
And 281 days after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which broke with the organization’s core principles. A foreign minister was therefore discharged. Poland refused Russia’s chief diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, a visa, citing EU sanctions. Moscow and Minsk were represented by ambassadors.
The Secretary General, the top German diplomat Helga Schmid, speaks of the “devastating effects” of the Russian aggression on the OSCE. It is not clear “how much damage the OSCE can withstand before it crumbles,” warned the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Margareta Cederfelt of Sweden. The decay had been in the making for years. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock states that it is “certainly the most difficult year for the OSCE, but probably also the most important year” in the history of the organization, whose institutionalization was initiated in Paris in 1990 and finalized in Budapest in 1994.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has not received a visa from Poland. His colleague Vladimir Makej (right) from Belarus died unexpectedly a few days ago.
(Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry/imago)
The organization could therefore urgently use new energy, a revitalization, just like the conference venue in Łódź with its renovated brick walls. In view of the systematic destruction of civil infrastructure, with which Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently trying to subjugate Ukraine, some members are calling for a conversion, more than a fundamental renovation.
They question whether Moscow, represented in Łódź by Ambassador Alexander Lukashevich, can still belong to the OSCE now that the Kremlin no longer cares about principles that were once mutually agreed; the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, for example, the assurance that borders will not be moved by force, or the freedom of states to choose alliances for defense themselves and without hindrance.
Ukraine’s accusation: Russia is abusing the rules
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has no clear answer: the OSCE’s success depends on its members being true to the principles. She cannot guarantee peace if her actions are “sabotaged by an aggressor from her own ranks.” The OSCE did everything to avert war and initiated a European security dialogue. Russia decided to go to war anyway. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned that the OSCE is on the “highway to hell” because Russia is abusing its rules and principles, but also acknowledged “remarkable efforts” to save it. Everything had been tried to involve Russia – without success. “It would therefore be better for the OSCE to continue without Russia.”
Lavrov, whose unloading many countries do not see as a wise move, countered from Moscow at a press conference with a broadside – unlike what would have been possible in Łódź, completely unchallenged. “The spirit and the letter of the OSCE Charter have been destroyed,” he ranted, accusing the organization of acting in a biased manner. He went so far as to claim that the OSCE monitors once stationed along the line of contact in Donbass had helped direct the shelling of Donetsk and Luhansk through Ukraine. Poland, which holds the rotating chairmanship, is “digging a grave” for the OSCE, Lavrov said. The West has hijacked the OSCE and devalued it with the “ruthless expansion of NATO.”
Russia’s obstruction is not limited to rhetoric. Although Moscow’s ambassador regularly attends the weekly council meetings in Vienna, Moscow blocks the budget from which the organization pays the salaries of its 3,500 employees at headquarters and a number of field operations. The consensus principle in the OSCE gives the Kremlin a de facto veto on all decisions, which it uses to blockade.
So far, the OSCE has managed with extrabudgetary funds, ie voluntary donations from governments, which have allowed it to keep 14 missions running, one of them in Ukraine with more than 60 staff. Secretary General Schmid dismissed claims that the OSCE was paralyzed. One cannot ignore the “valuable work” that continues to be done in Ukraine, in support of Moldova, in Central Asia, in border protection, in the fight against human trafficking, against small arms, in clearing mines or in the face of the climate crisis.
It was no coincidence that Baerbock took part in a panel on the effects of climate change in mountain regions. On the one hand, the Green politician is more concerned about the topic than the war in Ukraine, on the other hand, she met foreign ministers and other high-ranking representatives of the five Central Asian states there. The OSCE is an important contact point for them. Where the organization supports border security, states can resist Russia’s pressure to send soldiers to wherever they want to become a little more independent of Moscow. Supporting this and at the same time opening up new suppliers for raw materials and new sales markets were also goals of Baerbock’s recent trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The members have never been in one line
She made it clear that Germany had given more support to the work of the OSCE this year than ever before, said the Foreign Minister. Right now there is a need for cooperation across borders in the pan-European area. She leaves the question of Russia’s exclusion unanswered.
Secretary General Schmid accuses Russia of “betraying” the principles of the OSCE. At the same time, she recalls that the OSCE was never an organization of like-minded states – it was founded during the Cold War as an instrument of detente in the bloc confrontation. Nonetheless, it was possible to build trust and identify common foundations for cooperation, said Schmid, who took part in the 1990 summit in Paris as a young diplomat. Along with the United Nations, the OSCE remains the only organization in which all relevant actors sit around one table.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid (right) share similar views.
(Photo: Thomas Koehler/IMAGO/photothek)
In view of the Russian aggression, nobody in Łódź wants to talk about the idea of cooperative security, on which the CSCE was once founded; It’s about security from Russia and not with Russia, Baerbock has repeatedly emphasized. Nevertheless, the OSCE must retain its capabilities for better times, Secretary General Schmid appealed, recalling that 1.3 billion people live in the OSCE member states.
Putin failed to “destroy the OSCE,” said Victoria Nuland, the US representative. She gained confidence at this meeting because 55 of 57 states had found new ways “to defend democratic principles”. She represented US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met his French counterpart Catherine Colonna in Washington during Emmanuel Macron’s state visit.
In any case, the OSCE has no mechanism for a state to withdraw – the basic documents also contain nothing about an exclusion, a fact that the US ambassador to the OSCE in Vienna, Michael Carpenter, also pointed out. However, Russia has a long lever if it wants to destroy the OSCE. At the end of next year, the mandate of Secretary General Helga Schmid will expire, as will that of other top officials. Here, too, Moscow can block. The organisation’s already most serious crisis could then become existential: Without money and without leadership, the OSCE would hardly be able to survive in the long term.