Skopje, 30 November 2023 (MIA) — At the finish line of our Chairpersonship, I send the message of hope that we won't miss our meeting with history, that we will respond responsibly to the gravity of the momentum and that we will ensure a predictable and constructive future for the OSCE, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Chairperson-in-Office and Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said in his remarks at the opening of the 30th OSCE Ministerial Meeting in Skopje on Thursday.

"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.

"The OSCE, as the world's largest regional security organization, is recognized and valued as a needed and reliable partner for peace and stability. With an eye to the future, we have prioritized and engaged in several important areas including climate change, cyber security, anti-corruption, gender and youth. As the world changes, so has the OSCE and will continue to adapt to better serve the people and live up to the Helsinki Final Act, come what may," the top diplomat said.

He also said the OSCE must be reinforced for the future. He said what was needed was "stragetic clarity and not strategic confusion."

"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.

What remained, he said, was to elect the leaders of the OSCE institutions as well as to adopt the Organization's budget.

"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.

"We cannot allow these tools that have made a difference in the lives of so many to lie unused due to internal inability to wield them. That is paradoxical and unacceptable, and most of all a betrayal of the people we serve," Osmani said.

Reiterating that the OSCE exists for the benefit of the people, he said supporting the people was the focus of North Macedonia's Chairpersonship-in-Office.

"The OSCE must serve as an active platform for accountability in times when tensions and conflicts are on the rise," he also said.

North Macedonia and its capital Skopje are hosting the 30th OSCE Ministerial Council, which is attended by some 1,000 delegates from OSCE participating states and partner countries. mr/