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Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov press conference on the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting, November 30, 2007

Transcript of Remarks and Replies to Media Questions by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov During Press Conference After Participation in OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting, Madrid, November 30, 2007

Foreign Minister Lavrov: The session of the OSCE Ministerial Council has generally been proceeding in the usual mode that has been observed throughout recent years. Unfortunately, it is characterized by the fact that the serious crisis in which the Organization is has eluded all efforts to overcome it. The crisis is due primarily to the fact that the OSCE is called "organization," even though it still remains unable to acquire a full-fledged organizational structure. It has no statute, nor has it any clearly defined rules for activity, be it the field missions, electoral monitoring or cooperation with civil society or non-governmental organizations. On all these issues the OSCE is heavily behind other international and regional structures. The UN and the Council of Europe and the European Union and NATO are in the process of reformation and transformation - in order to find their place in a globalizing new world and meet its requirements. Against this background the assertion of some of our OSCE colleagues that the Organization does not need any changes, that in the talks on how to develop cooperation further some of our partners won't budge a millimeter - against the dramatic changes in all other world and regional security entities such talk is simply untenable.

We do not give up; we do not engage in blank criticism of the OSCE with no substance. Together with other CSTO and CIS member countries we have submitted a whole array of specific and constructive proposals concerning elaboration of a statute for the Organization and the establishment of clear-cut rules for its activities in all fields. We look forward to these proposals being considered. Although, I repeat, what we heard from some OSCE members at this session does not encourage us. Absolutely unjustified, ill-argued objections to starting negotiations on how better to cooperate in the OSCE, which is, of course, no answer to our keenness on preserving the Organization as a truly unifying mechanism in the Euro-Atlantic space. Moreover, I stated our assessments in my speech at the formal session. I will only say that we will continue seeking to ensure that the OSCE is a full-fledged organization, that no one in it is subjected to discrimination, and that it works for the benefit of all its members on a mutually respectful basis, with consideration for the interests of all, rather than being used as an instrument of foreign policy pressure.

Question: A Conference on the CFE Treaty was held within the framework of the OSCE. In what vein did the conversation proceed, because it was exactly today that the Presidential Decree was signed, and on December 12, it enters into force?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: The law was signed - making effective on December 12 the Russian Federation's suspension of its fulfillment of its obligations under the CFE Treaty, which was signed in 1990 and is now generally seen as hopelessly outdated. As to the renewed, adapted CFE Treaty, the agreement was concluded in 1999, Russia has ratified it together with Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The NATO countries, however, are postponing ratification under farfetched pretexts which have no relationship to the CFE Treaty itself. Therefore the situation has evolved the way it has evolved.

Meetings of the countries parties to the CFE Treaty were held here yesterday and today at the level of directors of departments. We note that in respect of some of our concerns, even if late, there is at least some desire to find solutions after all. On a number of others, such desire is not yet observable. We will continue this work. There are no deadlines in this regard. The entry of our moratorium into force does not mean that the efforts will be terminated. We will after December 12 too carry on this work, looking for understandings which will make it possible to restore balance and strategic stability in the military-political sphere in the Euro-Atlantic space.

Question: To what extent is the renewal of Russian-Georgian relations possible, in terms of politics, economy and transportation? How can you comment on the assessment by the European Parliament that the Russian peacekeepers no longer have a neutral position in the zone of conflict?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: Today we once again met with Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gela Bezhuashvili. We regularly discuss the state of Russian-Georgian relations. It cannot make us happy. Constantly our Georgian colleagues ask the question about how to get these relations out of the crisis and impart to them a normal character. To this we say that there is but one road to this - please give up anti-Russian rhetoric, which has become a norm of statements by the Georgian leadership. Please give up attempts to seek in Russia the source of all the troubles, be it internal politics or foreign affairs and please start working normally to settle the conflicts - South Ossetian and Abkhaz. Please do not try to undermine the understandings already available and signed by Georgia on what formats to search for settlement in and on what basis, but rather abide strictly by the existing obligations.

Quite a few useful documents were adopted - I will mention, for example, the understandings that were signed by Zurab Zhvania and Eduard Kokoity, which the Georgian side currently shirks. In response to the question why it does so they always tell us that these mechanisms are ineffective and that they do not see a possibility to achieve results in this way. The answer is that the Georgian side is actually not trying to work this way. Every time understandings are reached with their participation, they get simply discarded afterwards. Primitive alternative entities are created instead - like that in South Ossetia - and the UN Security Council's resolutions are breached, particularly on the Kodori Gorge. We have no other response: the understandings which are reached must be fulfilled, otherwise doubts arise about the treaty capacity of our Georgian colleagues, as actually manifested by the entire story of the withdrawal of the Russian bases.

At the start of 2005 we agreed with the Georgian partners to conclude accords which would encompass the withdrawal of the Russian bases and the creation of a Russian-Georgian joint antiterrorist center and the signing of a Grand Treaty and the adoption by Georgia of a law that it would have no foreign troops on its soil in the future. Of this package which, I repeat, was agreed on with the participation of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili there was fulfilled only that which the Russian side could fulfill. We have withdrawn our bases, ahead of schedule - a year earlier than stipulated by the agreement signed. All the other things - the creation of the antiterrorist center and the signing of a Grand Treaty and the adoption of the law - have been shelved, perhaps for good.

So that we are open for the normalization of relations with Georgia, but we just can't go on showing the initiative alone. We look forward to reciprocal steps, and today in the most detailed way I told Bezhuashvili once again about this. We meet regularly. Every time after such meetings there's a flicker of hope that we will now conduct matters differently, but every time a month or two after these meetings some incomprehensible incidents occur. Now they find a missile in a pit in South Ossetia, now they make an incursion on the Abkhaz side into the conflict zone and commit a murder, now they arrest Russian citizens in South Ossetia and so on. In this regard it is very important that there is no mismatch between words and actions.

Commercial, economic relations and those in other fields will necessarily be normal if only there are normal attitudes at the level of the political leadership of Georgia toward the Russian Federation.

Question: Could you comment on the remark of your Kazakhstan colleague that Kazakhstan will not support any changes in the mandate of ODIHR?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: I think that no one in the OSCE, including the Russian Federation, is going to weaken the mandate of ODIHR. It is already weak, absolutely eroded, and we want to strengthen it and will work towards this end.

Question: Could you comment on the deployment of OSCE forces on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: I know nothing about the deployment of OSCE forces on the border of Tajikistan with Afghanistan. To begin with, the OSCE has no forces and the role of the OSCE in conflict settlement was always limited to helping the two parties in arranging relations, construction and post-conflict reconstruction. A whole array of OSCE members do not consider it right to create any OSCE forces and such, I repeat once again, do not exist.

I don't know from where you took this information, but the draft decision on Afghanistan that is being considered in the Ministerial Council and which we support indicates that the OSCE should actively help the Central Asian states and Afghanistan forge control on the border, first and foremost, from the viewpoint of putting an end to narco-traffic flows. We consider it very important that this decision underscores the necessity of close cooperation by the OSCE with the UN and regional organizations, including the CSTO, because a uniting of efforts alone can really change for the better the depressing situation surrounding the Afghan narco-threat. The CSTO probably has the richest experience in combating the drugs flow from Afghanistan. Operation Canal has been annually held on a regular basis; the CSTO members take part and another twenty states or so are drawn in. We believe this is a very promising field of endeavor, which will at last help to at least somehow weaken the Afghan narco-threat.

Question: How is the question of Kazakhstan's OSCE chairmanship in 2009 being solved?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: I understand that the final session is being held right now. The Spanish Chairmanship submitted the proposal that agreement be reached on the chairs for three years - in 2009 Greece, in 2010 Kazakhstan, and in 2011 Lithuania. We will not object to consensus on this mater, although, of course, we initially backed up Kazakhstan together with all the other CIS countries in its bid for 2009, which had been put forward long ago when there were no other aspirants to the chairmanship in that year. But, unfortunately, in the several years that preceded today's meeting, absolutely unacceptable and unseemly maneuvers took place around this bid, aimed at making the right of a particular country - an equal OSCE participant - to the chairmanship of this Organization contingent upon certain demands connected with its domestic and foreign policies. That the draft decision which is scheduled today for approval by the Ministerial Council contains no "makeweights" differing from the usual OSCE practice - I consider this to be an important achievement of all the OSCE participants who came out against the attempts to use this organization as a tool of pressure on a sovereign country. I am convinced that such attempts, because they took place even last evening, once again underlines the deep crisis in which this Organization is.

Question: Is Russia going to conduct elections for the State Duma within the territories of the conflict zones in Georgia?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: We will so conduct our elections - and all the necessary measures have already been taken - that Russian citizens, wherever they are, are able to use their electoral right.

Question: What can you say about the agreement to extend the OSCE mission's presence in Kosovo?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: This does not depend on me. There are the norms of international law. The OSCE mission in Kosovo is there in accordance with the decision of the OSCE Permanent Council, which was adopted on the basis of the mandate contained in UN Security Council resolution 1244.

Source: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, www.russianembassy.org.

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