Press release on the upcoming OSCE Ministerial Council meeting
3 December 2025 10:10
2011-03-12-2025
On December 4−5, Vienna, Austria, will host the 32nd Ministerial Council meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Russian delegation at the event will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko.
The Ministerial Council meeting, the second highest decision-making body of the OSCE, is held in the years when OSCE summit meetings are not convened (it was last held in Astana in 2010). It is usually hosted by the country that holds the OSCE Chairpersonship. Finland, which holds the chairmanship this year, has requested that the meeting be held in Vienna, citing excessive workload due to preparations to hold the event marking the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in Helsinki on August 1, 2025.
Ministerial Council meetings are held to review the implementation of decisions, set new tasks for the medium term, and maintain political dialogue between the member states. All decisions at the OSCE are based on the principle of consensus, which is the key conditions for preserving the viability of the Vienna platform.
The main focus of the Russian delegation at the upcoming meeting will be on reviewing the OSCE's performance in the year of its 50th anniversary, and assessing the OCSE's prospects amid the rising multipolar world order. We hope to be able to discuss solutions to current problems with due regard for the interests of all member states.
The current institutional crisis at the OSCE is the result of the destructive actions of some Western states, which are using the Organisation to further their own interests, in particular, to fuel anti-Russia hysteria. The Finnish Chairmanship actively promoted this policy in 2025, neglecting its mandate to act as an honest broker. For example, nothing has been done to relaunch normal thematic work in three security dimensions (politico-military, economic and environmental, and human), which has been paralysed since 2022 due to the almost total Ukrainization of the OSCE agenda. Over the three-odd years, the Organisation has been replacing its key events, including Human Dimension Implementation Meetings, with non-consensus formats.
Russian representatives regularly raise issues of utmost importance for the OSCE space at the meetings of the OSCE's decision-making bodies - the Permanent Council and the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC). These include combatting terrorism, drug trafficking and manifestations of neo-Nazism, preventing the falsification of history and media censorship, as well as protecting traditional values and the rights of believers and national minorities. We call on all countries to join efforts in these spheres.
We regularly provide objective information to the member states and OSCE leadership about the military crimes committed by the Kiev regime, the full-scale campaign to cancel the Russian language and culture in Ukraine, the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the harassment of the Russian media. We also make public information about the dangerous London and Brussels' policy of dragging out the Ukraine conflict through large-scale military assistance to the Kiev regime.
The conceptual framework of building a system of equal and indivisible security has been set out in the fundamental CSCE/OSCE documents, namely the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990), the Charter for European Security (1999), and the Astana Declaration (2010). There is also a complex of agreements on a broad range of issues related to the Organisation's first (politico-military) dimension, such as the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) signed in 1990 to eliminate the military architecture of the Cold War era. Consistent efforts have been taken to improve the Vienna Document on confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs). The Open Skies Agreement was signed in 1992. The Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), which was established that year, has adopted a number of fundamental documents, in particular, the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security; the Principles Governing Conventional Arms Transfers; Global Exchange of Military Information; and Stabilising Measures for Localised Crisis Situations. The Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons and the Document on Stockpiles of Conventional Ammunition were approved in 2000. These documents now remain ineffective due to the destructive policy of the Werst and its desire to add some elements of NATO's bloc policy to the OSCE. Attempts are also being made to emasculate the FSC and undermine its principle of consensus decision-making.
The second dimension, which has been designed to harmonise the member states' cooperation interests in the field of the economy and the environment, is being used by the West to assess "environmental damage" in Ukraine and promote confrontational attitudes, such as linking climate and security.
The third (human) dimension has been most strongly affected by politicisation, as well as the thematic and geographical bias focused on the neo-liberal values that have little in common with the priorities of most member states.
There are serious complaints to the OSCE's humanitarian structures - the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), and the Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM). Their new heads, who were appointed last year, have no ability to resist the West's political pressure. This especially concerns the ODIHR, which has held openly biased election monitoring missions in countries "east of Vienna," including the preparation of "acceptable" conclusions in advance, and published anti-Russia reports on the biased issue of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in Ukraine.
Considering the current state of affairs at the OSCE, there is hardly any use talking about its role amid the ongoing global reshaping of the world. The Organisation could benefit from drawing on the experience of such associations at the SCO, BRICS and the CIS, where the member states' work is based on the principles of equality and mutual support.
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