ArmInfo.The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan adopted a joint statement on the results of the meeting of the Ministerial Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense Ministers Council, Committee of Secretaries of Security Council in Yerevan on November 23 regarding the actions of the OSCE.
According to the CSTO press service, in the document they express their disagreement with the unprecedented decision of the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office (Poland), which made it impossible for the delegation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation to participate in the 29th meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers.
The Foreign Ministers state that by infringing on the rights of the Russian delegation, the Polish Chairmanship-in-Office has not fulfilled its obligations to the OSCE, which is currently the most representative pan-European organization for security and cooperation.
"Such steps are detrimental to the activities of the OSCE. The Foreign Ministers call on the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office to ensure equal and inclusive representation of all OSCE participating States without exception, as well as future chairmanships in OSCE institutions and bodies to take a constructive approach to their role, to ensure compliance with their mandates and participation practices all members of the Organization to achieve the goals of dialogue and cooperation for the benefit of all OSCE participating States," the CSTO Council of Ministers said in a joint statement.
Meanwhile, the Defense Ministers Council, Committee of Secretaries of Security Council adopted a decision to give the status of the base organization of the CSTO member states for demining to the International Mine Action Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the training of relevant specialists.
The next regular meetings of the Ministerial Council, Defense Ministers Council, Committee of Secretaries of Security Council will be held in the second quarter of 2023 in Minsk.
It should be reminded that the Polish OSCE Chairmanship did not allow Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to participate in the annual meeting of the Organization's Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which will be held on December 1-2 in Lodz. The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized this step of the Polish side. "The decision of Poland, which is the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, to refuse the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation S.V. Lavrov to participate in the meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers (CMFA) in Lodz on December 1-2 this year is unprecedented and provocative. It is incompatible with the status of chairman of an Organization in which 57 countries participate as sovereign and independent states in conditions of complete equality. The rules of procedure of the OSCE and the decisions of its decision-making bodies, in particular the decision of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Porto (2002) on the principles of the work of the Chairmanship-in-Office, have been violated," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.