Who feels sorry for European diplomacy?...
On the eve of the press conference of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the official representative of the diplomatic service, Maria Zakharova, held another briefing. One of the questions asked by The Moscow Post correspondent was as follows: "Sergei Lavrov in a recent interview called all OSCE statements about" three spaces "from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean" voiceless. " How do you assess the future of this organization and the place of Russia in it? "
And told the cold
Zakharova offered to wait for Sergey Lavrov to answer "in detail and in detail." The press conference resembled the "funeral" of Europe, dressed in an OSCE shroud. "The West is doing exactly what the OSCE was created against - it is digging dividing lines. Where they dig and someone can be buried. I fear that this is done specifically for the OSCE, "said Sergey Lavrov.
It was especially and nothing to regret. The OSCE has become a marginal organization, and Poland, as the current chairman, is digging up its grave, the Foreign Minister said. "The security space in Europe is finally fragmenting, and the OSCE itself is becoming, to put it mildly, a marginal entity," Lavrov said. Meanwhile, in Lodz, Poland, on the day of the press conference of the Russian minister, a meeting of the OSCE Council of Ministers began work. Lavrov's organizers were not invited to the event.
The trend towards degradation was already noticeable. "The OSCE Chairmen-in-Office have not been eager to break this negative trend in recent years. The Swedes were chairmen last year and even then ceased to act as honest brokers, but as active participants in Western politics in the OSCE. In fact, it was the Swedes who began to prepare the OSCE funeral. And our Polish neighbors have been diligently digging up a grave for this organization all this year, destroying the remnants of a culture of consensus, "the minister added.
In short, his words about the prospects of the organization are enough: "If and when at some point in time our Western neighbors <... > and former partners are suddenly interested in somehow restoring joint work on European security, then recovery will not work. Because recovery means what it used to be. But there will be no business as usual. "
Europe on an American leash
And there was practically no business left, the West went to what is called a raider seizure in the world of crime. "I note that such a line, an unsightly line of behavior of the OSCE has its own explanation. Using arithmetic superiority in this organization, the West has been trying for many years to carry out privatization, and, probably, more correctly, they are trying to carry out a raider seizure of the OSCE, to subjugate this last platform for regional dialogue, "Lavrov said.
Lavrov also identified the beneficiary of the seizure. Europe "recklessly" fled for the United States, supporting Russophobic policies in everything.
We need there
Sergey Lavrov said that he regrets European diplomacy, swallowing Ukrainian approaches to European values and recalled that Charles Michel, the head of the European Council, previously demanded to ensure the victory of Ukraine, because Kyiv allegedly seeks European values, as if not noticing the facts of violations of human rights, religious and political freedoms in Ukraine.
"European diplomacy, which swallows all these manifestations of the Ukrainian approach to European values, I regret this diplomacy," he said during a press conference. According to him, European diplomacy can believe that Ukraine defends European values only if diplomats are not reported on the facts of what is really happening in Ukraine.
According to Lavrov, it seems that "Western propaganda begins to worry only when those people who have sworn allegiance to the West and from whom the West wants to make an instrument to achieve their geopolitical and military goals, in this case, Ukrainians, suffer."
Russia needs to understand when sane people will appear in European diplomacy, Lavrov said, trying to look into the future. "Are we not being cut off from European diplomacy? Probably, we must first deal with whether there is, whether European diplomacy has been preserved and, if so, what it is. So far, from the main European diplomats, we hear statements in the spirit of the same Borrell, which he, like a mantra, repeats from the beginning of a special military operation - "this conflict should end with Ukraine's victory on the battlefield."
This is a European diplomat, "he said. "If this is understood by European diplomacy, I don't think we need to go there. We need to understand when sane people will appear in European diplomacy, "Lavrov stressed.
I doubt that Washington is aware of
Russia is ready to return to dialogue with the United States if Washington realizes its mistakes and expresses its readiness to discuss projects on security guarantees, the minister said. "If our Western interlocutors are aware of their mistakes and express their readiness to return to discussing the documents that we proposed in December [2021], I think this will be a positive fact."
And immediately he added: "I doubt that they will find the strength and reason to do this, but suddenly if this happens, we will be ready to return to talking with them," he said during a press conference. Lavrov stressed that since the United States "rejected these proposals, they have already taken a number of steps that completely contradict the prospects for a resumption of dialogue."
In December last year, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Russia and the United States and NATO on security guarantees. The documents, in particular, proposed a return to the state of May 1997, as well as a rejection of any military activities of the alliance in Ukraine, Transcaucasia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Moscow proposed disavowing the decision of the 2008 Bucharest NATO summit that Ukraine and Georgia would become NATO members.
As steps that impede "awareness," Lavrov mentioned the statement of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that if Ukraine does not win, then the issue of its membership in NATO will not be discussed. "The irresponsibility of such statements is obvious to any person more or less knowledgeable in politics," he added.
Strategic stability in Kyiv
It is impossible to discuss strategic stability with the United States without taking into account the situation in Ukraine. "In my opinion, it is crystal clear to everyone that it is impossible to discuss strategic stability today, ignoring everything that is happening in Ukraine," he said and noted that Kyiv declared the goal "to defeat Russia on the battlefield, or even destroy."
"Even the goal of defeating Russia, how can it not be important for strategic stability? When one of the key players in the field of strategic security wants to destroy. And at the same time they tell us: no, Ukraine must be discussed with the Ukrainians when the Ukrainians want, and let's discuss nuclear weapons and strategic stability with you. Well, this is naive at least, "he added.
Russia is alarmed by the rhetoric of the West, accusing it of preparing provocations using weapons of mass destruction, but at the same time increasing its almost direct participation in the conflict in Ukraine, Lavrov said. "We are watching with alarm the rhetoric that the West is spewing, accusing us of allegedly preparing some kind of provocation using weapons of mass destruction. But the West itself, including the United States, Great Britain, France, is doing everything to increase its almost direct participation in the conflict.
Leakage and curvature channels
Prior to that, in his speech, the minister recalled the agreement between the presidents of the United States and Russia on the inadmissibility of a nuclear conflict.
The United States insisted on the confidentiality of the communication channel between CIA Director William Burns and SVR head Sergei Naryshkin, but then they themselves initiated the leaks, Lavrov said. "American colleagues suggested a meeting between Bill Burns and Sergei Naryshkin. We agreed.... But as soon as they arrived in Ankara, it immediately leaked - I don't know where from the White House, from the State Department, but it leaked, "Lavrov said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier that he plans direct contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but so far there is no telephone conversation with Macron in Putin's schedule. Macron intends to consult with Biden on Ukrainian affairs before the call, the minister suggested.
'We were waiting for him to call if he was really going to call. But here he is the other day, three days ago... he said: I will not try to contact Putin until I go to Washington, from which we conclude that he will not only talk about weakening Europe's competitive advantages, but will also consult on Ukrainian affairs, "Lavrov said.
NATO in Europe, Asia and the Seas
"The Americans in the further development of the North Atlantic Alliance rely on countries such as Poland and the Baltic countries, which occupy the most Russophobic, racist positions," Lavrov said, answering a question about the words of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who announced the expansion of NATO structure in the region from the Black to the Baltic Seas.
NATO is trying to escalate tensions in the South China Sea region, and this poses risks to Russia's security, so Moscow is developing military cooperation with Beijing, Lavrov said. "The line of defense," from whom it is not clear, "NATO move even further east and, probably, it will pass somewhere in the South China Sea. Given the rhetoric that sounds from Washington, Brussels, Australia, Canada, London, the South China Sea is now becoming one of the regions where NATO members are not averse, as they once did in Ukraine, to escalate tensions, "Lavrov said.
"We know how seriously the PRC takes this kind of provocation, not to mention Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait. We understand that such NATO games with fire in those parts carry a threat and risks for the Russian Federation - this is as close to our shores and to our seas as it is to Chinese territory. Therefore, we are developing military cooperation with the PRC, "the minister added.
These words, as best as possible, led those who listened to Sergei Lavrov to think about the direction in which Moscow's foreign policy activity will continue to develop. Already after the "funeral" of the OSCE.
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