Skopje, 8 January 2024 (MIA) — North Macedonia's Chairpersonship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) dominated the country's foreign policy during 2023, with the crowning success being the OSCE Ministerial Council in Skopje on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 and overcoming the crisis in the organization, crucial for its survival, which put Skopje on the world's diplomacy map.

Over the couple of days of the summit, heads of diplomacy and senior representatives from over 70 OSCE participating countries and partner countries arrived in the country's capital, including the top diplomats of the USA and Russia, Antony Blinken and Sergey Lavrov.

Although the two did not meet, their presence marked the Ministerial Council. 

After several attempts to back Estonia's candidacy for chairing OSCE in 2024 failed due to Russia and Belarus rejecting the proposal, North Macedonia's mediation helped reach an agreement on a new candidate: Malta. 

The consensus around Malta holding the 2024 OSCE Chairpersonship-in-Office — as well as the extension of the Secretary-General's and other officials' terms in office — was crucial for the organization's future activities.

At the final press conference of the OSCE Ministerial Council, the 2023 OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said the organization has been saved and was going to remain functional.

"The OSCE has endured and continues to deliver. North Macedonia took over the OSCE Chairpersonship in a year of active war, with unprecedented threats to the European security and the international, rules-based order," North Macedonia's top diplomat said.

"Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine flies in the face of all that this Organization holds dear, the Helsinki Final Act and other key documents that underpin the European security," he said.

"The war undermined trust, dialogue and our capacity to deliver. Above all, it devastated the lives of ordinary people, their right to live freely, trembling with fear of war," he added.

Osmani also noted that dialogue and cooperation within the OSCE were replaced by divisions and polarization.

"Consensus, often instrumentalized for achieving national political objectives rather than serving collective interests, has been weaponized, making even prudent initiatives distant and difficult to attain," he said.

Despite this complex and challenging backdrop, North Macedonia remained resolute in serving as guardian of OSCE values and committments, Osmani said.

Backed by the vast majority of participating states, he noted, North Macedonia as chair managed to avoid defeatism and to convene disparate voices and critical energy to address together the challenges facing the Organization's existence. "We managed to maintain our organization's relevance and utility. All of us together managed to preserve the OSCE," Osmani said.

Speaking about the impact of the Russian military aggression, Osmani said it that in addition to the carnage and destruction in Ukraine, it also jeopardized the OSCE as a platform for dialogue that offers solutions to security challenges. "Despite the dark realities of conficts faced in Ukraine and the Middle East, multilateralism remains the best tool to prevent conflict and overcome differences and disputes," he added.

"As Chairpersonship, we left no stone unturned to seek and offer solutions to these critical challenges," Osmani said, one of which was the quest, he said, of the next chair. He expressed his gratitude and extended congratulations to the participating states for the consensus for installing Malta as 2024 chair.

"The OSCE's programs, field misions, and mechanisms create confidence and trust in our common region, paving the way to greater security and stability for all of us," he said. mr/