MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2020) Russia's permanent representative to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich, has agreed with the opinion that the structure, which marks the 45th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, has long ago become "The Organization for Suspicion and Confrontation in Europe."
"I am categorically disappointed with the results we have at the anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act," Lukashevich said at a Valdai Discussion Club conference.
According to the diplomat, many share the view that the OSCE has turned from a collective security organization into "The Organization for Suspicion and Confrontation in Europe." The West, he went on, sees the OSCE as a threat to its own Euro-Atlantic mechanisms.
"'Helsinki' and all other documents have long been put on the shelf by Western politicians. This is already the archive of European policy, and other decisions made outside the OSCE are at play, but they involved neither Russia nor other participating states," Lukashevich stressed.
Should things keep going this way, the OSCE will have "a very unenviable fate," the official noted, saying that he would be happy to be wrong.
The Helsinki Final Act was the document signed at the closing meeting of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in 1975. The act contains three baskets. The first covers issues related to security in Europe; the second deals with economic cooperation, technology and environment; and the third one concerns human rights.
The document also outlines principles guiding relations between participating states, such as sovereign equality, no use or threat of force, as well as non-interference in internal affairs.
