Skopje — The OSCE closed its thirtieth Ministerial Council on 1 December with something it has rarely managed lately: decisions. Ministers and envoys in Skopje confirmed Malta as chair for 2024 and extended the mandates of the organisation’s four top officials by nine months — keeping the institution functioning for another year in a war […]
Łódź — The OSCE’s twenty-ninth Ministerial Council ended in Łódź on 2 December with Sergey Lavrov addressing a half-emptied hall, no consensus on a declaration, and one unmistakable signal of how the organisation’s map is being redrawn: Estonia’s candidacy to chair in 2024 was blocked by Russia. Poland, this year’s chair, declined to accredit the […]
Stockholm — Foreign ministers of the OSCE’s 57 participating states gathered in Stockholm this week with one subject overshadowing everything else: the Russian military build-up along Ukraine’s borders, and whether Europe’s largest security organisation can still do the job it was built for. The meeting, on 2 and 3 December under Sweden’s chairmanship, brought Russian […]