1.Mr Chair, thank you for guiding this Forum in these challenging circumstances. The EU and its Member States fully support your decisions related to the conduct of FSC meetings in the face of Russia’s contempt towards this Forum. We condemn the Russian Federation’s continued unprofessional and disrespectful blockage of FSC meetings.
2.Two weeks have passed since we met in regular format and were able to address the most pressing security challenges, in particular those originating from the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Two weeks that were marked by the Russian Federation’s unrelenting attacks on Ukraine, destroying residential neighbourhoods and civilian facilities, causing civilian casualties, as we sadly witnessed during the recent attacks in the Kharkiv region. Two weeks during which the Russian Federation continued again with its irresponsible nuclear rhetoric. Two weeks of countless soldiers dying on the battlefield, those rightfully defending their homeland against an aggressor as well as those brutally invading a peaceful neighbouring country in Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression.
3.Regretfully, despite this inhumane and completely unnecessary suffering, we were not able to address these matters and their politico-military repercussions in a formal FSC meeting last week and this week.
4.We said last week that we often commend this Forum for its role in fostering dialogue. That same week, the Russian Federation obstructed dialogue in this Forum, using the argument of a lack of consensus on the adoption of the agenda. An agenda containing only the bare minimum of ‘general statements’ and ‘any other business’, as mandated by Paragraph IV.1(C)1 of the FSC Rules of Procedure. And all this despite the fact that the Rules of Procedure under Paragraph IV.2 (C)1 indicate that the meetings of the FSC shall take place, as a rule,
once a week in Vienna, which is why delegations of OSCE participating States attend the meeting of the FSC in person every Wednesday.
5.We urge the Russian Federation to cease its escalating efforts to hold this Forum hostage to its own narrow interests and denying the 56 others their right to speak at the FSC every week. The EU and its Member States condemn the Russian Federation’s shameful abuse of the FSC Rules of Procedure. These rules were formulated to allow dialogue and provide for continued, open and frank exchanges of all participating States. The first step for this Forum to function for all participating States would be for the Russian Federation to stop its war of aggression.

Thank you.

The Candidate Countries NORTH MACEDONIA*, MONTENEGRO*, ALBANIA*, UKRAINE, the REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA, BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA*, and GEORGIA, the EFTA countries ICELAND, LIECHTENSTEIN and NORWAY, members of the European Economic Area, as well as ANDORRA and SAN MARINO align themselves with this statement.
* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.