SPAIN: Russia and U.S. fail to overcome differences at OSCE meeting

Russia maintains a hard line in pushing for reform of the OSCE during talks in Madrid, as President Putin announces withdrawal from the organisation's CFE arms control regime. United States calls the move a mistake. Russia reiterated on Friday (November 30) its intention to maintain a reformist line towards the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at the end of meeting marked by a dispute with the United States over the election monitoring arm of the organisation. "I'd like to reiterate that we will continue to go forward in our line and we will try to get the OSCE as an organisation of equal partners so that no one is discriminated in this organisation. This organisation should work to the benefit of all members, taken into account the interest of all, and it's not used as an instrument of foreign policy pressure in other countries," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Madrid. Lavrov's comments came as President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Friday suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, a move which could allow it to deploy more forces close to western Europe. The suspension, which will come into effect from Dec. 12-13, would allow Moscow to boost military forces on its western and southern borders, although Russian generals have said that will not happen immediately. A U.S. reaction quickly followed Russia's announcement. U.S. Under Secretary Of State Nicholas Burns said America was disappointed with Putin's decision. "We are disappointed in that but we defeated that -the resolution proposed by Russia, Belarus and Uzbekistan was defeated. And the great majority of countries in this conference said we want the OSCE to remain a fair and objective organisation, we don't want to see political interference in the work of this organisation -I think that was by far the majority of viewpoints here. We were sorry to see, and disappointed to see, the announcement by President Putin this morning -this is a mistake, it is Russia walking out unilaterally of one of the most important arms control regimes of the last 20 years." Lavrov also met Georgia's Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili on Friday. The Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili pledged last Wednesday (November 28) to take control of the breakaway region of Abkhazia within a year, striking a populist note to launch his re-election campaign. Lavrov said that relations would not return to normal unless Georgia changed its attitude towards Russia. "Today we held a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Georgia. At such meetings we regularly discuss the situation of Georgia-Russia relations -the meeting was not encouraging. Our colleges asked us how to move these relations out of the crisis and bring them to normal terms. Our answer was that the only way to solve this would be for Georgia to end its anti-Russian rhetoric, something that has became a norm within the Georgian leadership. Geogia should stop finding in Russia the source of all their domestic and foreign policy evils. We should also start normal work to settle conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia." Russia and Georgia have traded barbs for years over Abkhazia and a second separatist region of South Ossetia which broke away from Tbilisi's rule in wars following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and now seek close alliance with Russia. The final plenary session of the OSCE Ministerial Meeting was delayed and delegates could not confirm their ability to issue a final declaration. aw/jrc

ITN Source | December 1, 2007

Tags:. .broke. .ability. .sorry. .instrument. .conventional