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Moscow calls for increasing transparency in OSCE activities

Russia Materials 19 February 2019 17:20 (UTC +04:00)
Moscow calls for increasing transparency in the activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference following talks with Miroslav Lajcak, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and the Slovak Foreign Minister
Moscow calls for increasing transparency in OSCE activities

Moscow calls for increasing transparency in the activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference following talks with Miroslav Lajcak, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and the Slovak Foreign Minister, Trend reports referring to TASS.

"Russia calls for making sure that the activities of the organization’s institutions, including the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Representative on Freedom of the Media, as well as OSCE missions, are more balanced and transparent and strictly based on approved mandates," Lavrov pointed out.

"The OSCE should facilitate efforts to restore trust in the Euro-Atlantic region and find appropriate responses to common challenges," he went on to say. "In this connection, we have highlighted the need to strengthen the organization’s ability to unite countries and increase its role in international affairs. We are confident that we should continue to pursue the goal of forming a free, democratic and indivisible security space stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, which was approved at the OSCE summit in Astana in 2010," the Russian top diplomat added.

Lavrov said that the parties had "thoroughly discussed major tasks concerning three dimensions of the OSCE’s activities, as well as possibilities for improving the operation of its executive agencies and field missions, and also touched upon a number of administrative, budget and staff issues."

"We confirmed Russia’s interest in close cooperation with the current Chairmanship in areas key for the OSCE, such as the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and cyber threats, efforts to harmonize integration processes, the protection of traditional values, the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, steps to counter anti-Semitism, Christianophobia and neo-Nazism," Lavrov stressed, expressing support for Slovakia’s plans "to hold events on these and other matters later in the year.".

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