Finland does not rule out the collapse of the OSCE

The OSCE may disintegrate due to the unwillingness of the Russian Federation and Belarus to approve the Estonian chairmanship.

This was stated by Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, RBC-Ukraine reports, citing Yle.

"If there is no chairman in 2024 and there is no consensus on this, the next year will be the year of the destruction of the OSCE as an organization," Haavisto said.

It is noted that according to the charter of the organization, the presidency, which rotates among the member states, must be approved by all 57 member states.

However, this year, Russia and Belarus did not support Estonia's candidacy for the presidency next year, while Estonia itself is not ready to give up its candidacy.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was founded in 1994 in Budapest, when a series of meetings on European security and cooperation grew into an independent organization.

The first meeting on security and cooperation in Europe took place in 1975 in Helsinki at the initiative of Finland and personally the president of Finland, Urho Kekkonen.

As is known, the OSCE is the only European security association that unites Europe, Russia, the United States and Ukraine, and its main goal is to prevent conflicts, monitor peace and observe elections.

Author – Anastasiya Glotova, 29/05/2023