OSCE ‘INEFFICIENT’ – LAVROV

RT
December 5, 2008, 15:28

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the Organisation for
Security and Co-operation in Europe needs reform. The statement came
on the second day of the OSCE’s summit in Helsinki.

"The OSCE does not fulfil its main task, which is providing security,"
Lavrov said.

At the same time, he noted that Russia is against the OSCE scaling
back its activities.

Lavrov also demanded an investigation following media allegations
that monitors from the OSCE knew in advance about Georgia’s plans to
attack South Ossetia in August.

The Russian Foreign Minister urged his fellow ministers from the 52
countries in attendance to help prevent a humanitarian catastrophe
from unfolding in South Ossetia. He pointed out that Georgia has cut
off gas supplies to the newly independent state ahead of the winter.

Meanwhile, in an address to the OSCE Foreign Ministers Council, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations and the OSCE
could reconsider their role in the Caucasus following the August
crisis in the region.

Earlier, Lavrov outlined Moscow’s proposal to draw up a new security
treaty for Europe, saying that the Georgian action showed that present
arrangements are failing.

On Friday he discussed this topic with OSCE Secretary General Marc
Perrin de Brichambaut. According to a press release published on the
R ussian Foreign Ministry’s web site "the parties have expressed
common views concerning the priority of providing security in the
Euro-Atlantic space and OSCE involvement in the implementation of
President Medvedev’s initiative concerning a new security treaty
in Europe".

The United States has stated it is premature to call a summit on
Russia’s initiative concerning a new security treaty.

The Helsinki meeting involved the foreign ministers of Armenia,
Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

On Thursday, the OSCE discussed other trouble hot-spots in the former
Soviet Union and, in particular, urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to
resolve their dispute in the Nagorno-Karabakh region peacefully.