OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid visits Moscow

MOSCOW, 25 June 2021 — OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid concluded her four-day visit to Moscow. Throughout the visit, she highlighted the value of the OSCE as a bridge-builder and a platform for dialogue between the East and the West.

The Secretary General met with Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Grigoriy Karasin, and other senior Russian stakeholders.

Her bilateral discussions focused on crises and conflicts in the OSCE area, including the Transdniestrian settlement process, a sustainable and peaceful settlement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and addressing the consequences of the 2008 conflict in Georgia.  

Schmid reaffirmed the OSCE’s continued commitment to supporting efforts toward a peaceful resolution to the crisis in and around Ukraine which needs all signatories to live up to their Minsk agreements’ obligations and to implement the Paris Summit conclusions as agreed by the Normandy format.

The Secretary General underscored how the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine’s (SMM) - monitoring and impartially reporting facts from the ground - is crucial to helping to bring about peace and stability in eastern Ukraine. She also stressed that the SMM must have safe, secure and unhindered access on both sides of the contact line to do their job. 

Highlighting the importance of revitalising arms control in the OSCE region, Schmid said: “We need real dialogue both at the political and at the military level, to revive the spirit of transparency in military matters, and to help find common ground.” In her address to the IX Moscow Security Conference, she stressed the need for participating States to re-engage with the OSCE's arms control and confidence- and security-building measures, to reduce risks and enhance military transparency, predictability and stability.

Schmid also held talks with the Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Stanislav Zas, and addressed the Permanent Council of the CSTO. Their discussions considered where co-operation between the two organizations might be intensified. “No country or organization alone can tackle growing transnational threats such as terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking or cyber-attacks,” Schmid said.

Schmid spoke at the Valdai discussion club on current trends in European security.

In the Secretary General’s meeting with representatives of the Women’s Union of Russia, she stressed the need to advance the role of women in all areas of public life. She also met with Russian civil society groups working to prevent violence against women.