Statement by Denmark at the OSCE 2023 Chairpersonship Security Review Conference 2023 special session on the 'Security Situation in the OSCE area'

Vienna, 28-29 June 2023

As delivered by Under-Secretary for Foreign Policy Anders Tang Friborg

 

Thank you, Mr. Chair,

 

As we meet today, fighting continues in Ukraine as Russia attempts to change borders by force and promote a security order based on ‘spheres of interest’. For 16 months now, we have been receiving reports about Russian targeting of residential buildings and infrastructure critical for civilian life in Ukraine, about torture and brutal atrocities, deportations of children and many other horrifying practices.

 

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine threatens the peace and security of the Ukrainian people and all of Europe, and has consequences for the whole world. We must ensure that Russia does not achieve its strategic goals in Ukraine. We must ensure that aggression and violations of international law do not pay off.

 

Thus, support for Ukraine to defend itself and re-establish its full territorial integrity and self-determination in accordance with the UN Charter is and will remain a key strategic priority for Denmark. We will continue the significant military, economic, reconstruction and humanitarian support for Ukraine as long as there is a need for it.

 

 

Mr. Chair,

 

We call once again on Russia to stop its war against Ukraine and withdraw completely and unconditionally from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. We call on Belarus to stop its complicity in the Russian military aggression.

 

Russia must not create a new unacceptable, long-lasting frozen conflict in Ukraine, as it has in Georgia and Moldova, where Russian troops are stationed without the consent of the host nations.

 

 

Mr. Chair,

 

The war we are currently witnessing in Ukraine is what we created this very organisation to avoid. We all, including Russia, have committed to shared principles, political agreements and concrete, day-to-day exchanges in the service of transparency, trust and rules-based peaceful security interaction in this region.

 

Sadly, with this senseless war, Russia is turning its back on cooperative security. Russia’s disregard of international law, including the UN charter and the very principles which the OSCE was founded on, attempts to challenge our determination to peacefully co-exist in a rules based international order based on values of democracy, freedom, and human rights.

 

In the face of this, we must continue to work to preserve the existing structures, commitments and mechanisms, which guide this rules-based interaction, including in the OSCE. Even so, the real value of the OSCE will only truly resurface when there is political will by all OSCE Participating States to uphold our common commitments.

 

 

Mr. Chair

 

In closing, I want to once again reaffirm that Denmark stands firmly by Ukraine and its people.

 

 

I thank you, Mr. Chair.