Russia is interested in the active and constructive chairmanship of Austria in the OSCE, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Austrian magazine Profil.

“We expect that our Austrian partners will demonstrate objective and impartial approach to the formation and implementation of the Organization’s agenda, considering the interests of all the member-states. […]

We are pleased to state that the 2017 program proposed by Vienna, which we studied in detail, is quite loaded and pragmatic, and—what is important—attaches equal attention to all the security dimensions. The key task for the upcoming year is the restoration of confidentiality and equal dialogue in the OSCE, as well as adoption of collective decisions in the sphere of security.

We are confident that the Organization will continue playing the role of an important platform for the discussion of positions on all the key issues on the pan-European agenda. […] Fight against terrorism, illegal drug trafficking and cyber threats should continue remaining among the OSCE priorities. […] We hope that during the Austrian chairmanship, the Organization will attach proper attention to the prevention of conflicts in its territory. This first of all relates to the support to resolving the inter-Ukrainian conflict. […] The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission [to Ukraine] plays an important stabilization role [here]. 

We [also] hope that the OSCE will continue to actively contribute to the negotiation process aimed at the settlement of the conflict in Transdniester, as well as the one round Nagorno-Karabakh, which is especially important against the backdrop of the escalation of situation in that region last year,” Lavrov noted.