Speaking at the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Sergei Lavrov said it was inappropriate for some forces to use the organization as a platform for promoting unilateral and politicized approaches to settle "stalled" conflicts.
Among such conflicts in Europe, the OSCE is particularly involved in mediating the standoffs in Georgia's breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where Russia maintains peacekeeping forces.
"Experience shows that such steps lead only to an escalation of tensions and mistrust, and throw settlement [efforts] backward," Lavrov said.
The minister also said the organization has recently focused mainly on humanitarian and human rights protection issues, putting aside other important areas such as military, political and economic cooperation.
He said that humanitarian and human rights protection issues were undoubtedly important to all members of the organization, but that its most important function of military and political cooperation within the framework of the OSCE was almost inactive today.
The organization's effort to coordinate economic cooperation has intensified, Lavrov said, ascribing the drive largely to Belgium's chairmanship of the OSCE. The minister added that he hoped Spain, which will chair the OSCE in 2007, will take more active measures, including reform of the organization.
