Closing statement by Ukraine

at the 23nd Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the OSCE

(Hamburg, 9 December 2016)

 

Mr.Chairperson-in-Office, 

Excellencies,

The Delegation of Ukraine would like to start by expressing gratitude to the German hosts, personally to Federal Minister F.-V.Steinmeier, for the warm hospitality in Hamburg, and by commending the dedicated work of the Chairmanship team, both in Vienna and in Berlin, throughout this year. 

The Hamburg Ministerial clearly indicated the difficulties of promotingdialogue against the backdrop of gross violations of the OSCE principles and commitments, eroding the European security. Our efforts to rebuild trust and to restore security continue to be impeded by actions of the Russian Federation, maintaining its course of undermining the very foundation of the rules-based order by its aggression, ambitions of domination and the use of force to this end.

The last Draft MC Declaration on crisis in and around Ukraine, tabled by the Chairmanship, was acceptable for all participating States, except Russia. Russia again failed to recommit to the fundamentals of security and of this Organization, starting from the Helsinki Decalogue of principles. At the same time the discussions at this Ministerial Councilregistered, in particular, the resolute support to the peaceful resolution of the crisis on the basis of full respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, condemnation and non-recognition of the attempted annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by Russia, the need to comprehensively address complex challenges, associated with the illegal occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea. Addressing the serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the occupied peninsula, including by seeking unimpeded access there of the OSCE and other international organizations, must remain in the focus of our efforts.   

We reiterate our support to the activities of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and OSCE’s facilitating efforts in the Trilateral Contact group, which also comprises Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Ukraine is fully committed to implementation of the Minsk agreements in good faith as a basis for sustainable peaceful resolution. Just as was done at this Ministerial Council in Hamburg, it is importantto continue focused efforts aimed at stimulating the Russian Federation to abide fully by the Minsk agreements as a signatory of these documents, thus allowing restoration of peace in Donbas, as well as of Ukraine’s sovereignty over its territory. Resolving the problem of the uncontrolled section of the border between Ukraine and Russia, enhancing the international security presence on the ground remain among priority tasks on the peace track.

Mr.Chairperson, 

As a country suffering from exported terrorist activities, we welcome and have contributed to agreement on strengthening OSCE efforts to prevent and counter terrorism. 

We also welcome the adoption of the document on confidence building measures to enhance cyber security. We contributed to reaching consensus on the Declaration on the OSCE`s Role in the Governance of Large Movements of Migrants and Refugees. Pursuing a holistic approach in addressing inter-related elements of forced displacement of people, it is necessary to use the OSCE platform for elaborating a comprehensive OSCE response addressing the protection of rights of internally displaced persons.

Consensus was ultimately reached on a decision in a second dimension which constitutes an important part of the OSCE concept of comprehensive security. Our cooperation in this dimension must be geared up to full respect for all OSCE principles and commitments.   

We commend the efforts of the OSCE Chairmanship aimed at building consensus on the draft decisions in the human dimension. We are very disappointed that again no decisions were adopted this year in the third dimension, including on such critically important issues as freedom of expression and countering propaganda. 

It is essential that the incoming Austrian Chairmanship duly addresses the current threats to security in the OSCE region, emanating from the gross breach by one participating State of the Helsinki Decalogue, and places issue of ensuring strict adherence to the OSCE principles and commitments at the top of the OSCE agenda in 2017.

We wish our Austrian colleagues every success at the helm of the OSCE and are ready to closely cooperate with the incoming Chairmanship across the OSCE mandate.

The Delegation of Ukraine kindly requests that this statement be attached to the journal of this Council’s meeting. 

Thank you, Mr.Chairperson.