Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoSecurity Council
8200th Security Council Meeting: Briefing by OSCE
The crisis in Ukraine was putting shared values to the test, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office told the Security Council today, while stressing that further dialogue and political will were needed to solve the situation.
Delivering the annual briefing to the Council, Chairperson-in-Office Angelino Alfano, also Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy, said that a crisis of mutual trust and confidence had been faced regarding the situation in Ukraine. There was only one way to rebuild that trust, and that was to build dialogue and take concrete actions on the ground. The OSCE expected new steps to be taken for the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. It had deployed a Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, which was essential in preventing a dangerous escalation of the crisis.
In addition to Ukraine, the intergovernmental organization focused on protracted conflicts in Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria. On Georgia, he supported the Geneva International Discussions and various informal initiatives, while on Nagorno‑Karabakh he supported the work of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Regarding Transnistria, the positive momentum already achieved needed to be maintained.
No nation was ever secure in isolation, he said, noting that Member States had a responsibility for one another’s security. That security would only be achieved when it was recognized that everyone was part of the same human race, and the defence of human dignity was essential to liberty. That value, he said, was shared by the United Nations and OSCE.
The representative of the Russian Federation said that some Member States still saw his country as a threat to peace and security, thinking in cold war terms. On Ukraine, he said that it was a domestic crisis that had started with the direct involvement of the West and a coup d’etat. Ukraine, meanwhile, had promoted the hatred of the Russian Federation, a move that had been fully endorsed by Western partners. The key to changing the problem was in the hands of Ukrainians, not in blaming Russian aggression. While the Security Council had enshrined the Minsk Agreements as the basis for any solution to the situation in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv was sabotaging that process, he said.
Annika Söder, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, underscored that, four years after the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, which was a blatant violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter, her country was committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Those principles needed to be restored, she emphasized, noting that the establishment of any United Nations mission there should have as its goal the restoration of that sovereignty.
The representative of the United Kingdom reiterated his nation’s support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, noting that February had marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. That had occurred in complete violation of the United Nations Charter and international law, he said. In addition, if Russia cared about the people of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, it needed to put a halt to the fighting it started there.
Echoing those words, Poland’s delegate raised the issue of aggression on the part of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, noting that it remained one of the core challenges facing OSCE. She also emphasized that, in the face of emerging challenges in the whole of the work of OSCE, “we have to stand united in combating the phenomena of racism, xenophobia and intolerance.” The representative of Kazakhstan agreed with the priority of seeking a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine based on the Minsk Agreements. Looking broadly at the work of OSCE, he welcomed initiatives to open new field missions, noting that as security challenges evolved, United Nations-OSCE cooperation needed to deepen alongside them.
Also speaking today were representatives of Bolivia, France, Kuwait, Equatorial Guinea, Peru, Côte d'Ivoire, United States, Ethiopia, China and the Netherlands.
The meeting began at 3:05 p.m. and ended at 4:43 p.m.
