Russia supports continuation of OSCE Structured Dialogue: FM

Russia supports the continuation of the Structured Dialogue of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with the involvement of military experts and without any politicization of the process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

"We consider dialogue an important confidence-building measure, especially when military contacts between Russia and NATO are interrupted," Lavrov said at a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Slovakia's capital of Bratislava, according to an official Russian Foreign Ministry transcript.

The Russian proposals on reducing tensions on the line of contact between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance remain unanswered and there has been no reaction to the appeal of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) foreign ministers to NATO colleagues, Lavrov said.

The OSCE Structured Dialogue brings together senior officials from capitals and ambassadors of the organization's 57 participating states in the format of an informal working group.

This body aims to discuss the challenges in the politico-military sphere, explore possibilities of overcoming divergences and reversing the negative developments that have marked European security in recent years.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)