Switzerland declares support for ‘indispensable’ OSCE

Rescue workers at the site of a residential building damaged by a missile attack in central Ukraine on April 28. At least 17 people were killed, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. Keystone / Oleg Petrasyuk

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has assured the UN Security Council of Switzerland’s support for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) despite a failure in Ukraine.

“Yes, the war in Ukraine is a serious setback” for the OSCE, said Cassis, who was chairing a UN Security Council meeting in New York for the second time on Thursday, the same day that a UN mission had spoken of crimes against humanity by Russia in Ukraine.

Cassis recalled that the OSCE was the largest regional security organisation in the world, uniting all actors in the conflict, including Moscow. This makes the OSCE indispensable, he said.

He added that it was up to everyone to preserve the OSCE’s capacity to act. As he has done repeatedly for more than a year, Cassis called on Moscow to end the aggression in Ukraine and withdraw Russian troops. “This war has already caused too much suffering,” he said.