Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The 27th meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers was held on 3 and 4 December. Due to restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was held in a virtual format. 

During the online plenary sessions, the heads of 67 delegations represented by the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of the OSCE participating States and the partner countries for co-operation spoke.

I. The main outcome of the meeting was a consensus reached on the appointment of four new persons in the leadership of the organization:

- H. Schmid (Germany) - OSCE Secretary General. Prior to the appointment of H. Schmid, she was the Secretary General of the EU External Relations Service since 2016. Participated in the negotiations on a nuclear agreement with Iran. Became the first woman to lead the OSCE;

- M. Mecacci (Italy) - Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR);

- T. Ribeiro (Portugal) - OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media; 

- K. Abdrakhmanova (Kazakhstan) - OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities.

The posts have been vacant since 18 July 2020. With the expiration of the term of the four top OSCE officials, they were expected to be extended “almost automatically” for another three years, but were blocked due to objections from a number of countries. As a result, the OSCE faced the most serious personnel crisis in its history.

Many media outlets note that for the first time in the history of the OSCE, one of the leading posts in the organization was taken by a representative of a CIS country, the former head of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan. This is seen as an important step towards ensuring “an equitable geographic balance in the organization’s workforce”.

Earlier in 2017, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that the Russian side would agree to vote next time (in 2020) only taking into account the representation in the organization of post-Soviet states.

II. At the meeting, OSCE participating States made a number of commitments:

- step up efforts to prevent and combat corruption through digitalization and increased transparency;

- expand cooperation in combating transnational crime;

- prevent and eradicate the use of torture;

- expand cooperation with Asian partners;

- to continue the process of the Transnistrian settlement in the "5 + 2" format.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries (Russia, France and the United States) issued a joint statement on the sidelines of the meeting, calling on Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue fulfilling their commitments under the November 9 agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions and concluding a long-term peace agreement under the auspices of the co-chairs. They also called for action by all parties involved for the "complete and prompt withdrawal of all foreign mercenaries from the region."

In addition, 37 OSCE participating States (Russia is not on the list of signatories) adopted a joint statement calling on Minsk to support the OSCE chairmanship in efforts to “promote national dialogue in Belarus”.

Also on the sidelines of the meeting, 34 OSCE participating States submitted a draft decision on a permanent monitoring mission in areas along the border with the Russian Federation, which was not controlled by Ukraine, which was blocked by Russia.

An agreement was reached on the chairmanship of the countries in the OSCE in the next three years: Sweden - in 2021, Poland - in 2022, North Macedonia - in 2023.

In general, experts believe that the last OSCE ministerial meeting has become one of the most productive in many years, and with the appointment of four leaders of the organization, it will be possible to overcome the institutional crisis and "paralysis" in work that has been observed over the past six months.