Thank you, Chair. On behalf of the UK, I want to begin by thanking you and your committed team. This was another testing year. We are grateful for your leadership, and that of the Secretary General, the institutions and hard-working OSCE staff. I also want to thank Austria for their hospitality in hosting the Ministerial this year.
Security and Co-operation are what bring us together in this forum. Our security landscape is changing significantly year on year. Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war against Ukraine has violated every principle of the Helsinki Final Act – the very commitments our predecessors agreed to ensure our collective security.
Chair, do not believe the propaganda. The UK hopes that this is the last time we sit at the Ministerial Council against the backdrop of Russia’s war. The only obstruction to peace is Russia’s continued willingness to fight a war of aggression that it started and which continues to cause misery and death on our continent.
We welcome the progress being made towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, and US leadership during this year to press for a ceasefire and negotiations. I hope we will be able to move forward and focus efforts on supporting Ukraine’s recovery.
Those of us contending with Russian sabotage and intimidation tactics are actively learning from Ukrainian resilience in the face of sustained aggression – both overt and covert. Russia uses a spectrum of hybrid instruments to undermine our democratic institutions, target international structures and exacerbate polarisation. We are experiencing arson, assassination, AI-enabled cyber-attacks, and an industrial scale of information manipulation designed to distort the truth, sow division and destabilise our societies.
Defence and resilience are strategic imperatives, and your focus on the latter as a theme of your Chairpersonship has been welcomed. The UK will continue to actively contest hybrid operations targeting our security and prosperity, working in collaboration with Allies and partners to boost our collective security. Yesterday, in response to the findings of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, we sanctioned the entirety of the GRU and 11 actors behind Russian state sponsored hostile activity. Russia must end its campaign of hostile activity.
Chair, the OSCE’s platform for dialogue remains important to the UK. Dialogue can reduce risk, and it can also support co-operation. Yesterday, my Minister hosted a side event on tackling illegal migration. Clearly, this is a priority for many of our countries and there is appetite to deepen cooperation across our region, to share intelligence, connect our law enforcement and strengthen our borders.
For the OSCE to keep up the pace with our evolving security environment, it must be equipped. For that, it needs an agreed budget. It should be as efficient and functional as possible. This will take some modernisation and reprioritisation. And we have welcomed the Helsinki plus 50 discussions you have led to this end.
Looking ahead, we offer Switzerland our full support for 2026. We look forward to working closely with them as their Security Committee Chair and as Chair of the Forum for Security Co-operation from September.
Colleagues, the UK will continue to stand with Ukraine. We will continue to defend the foundations and values of our collective Euro-Atlantic security. And we will continue to use the OSCE to co-operate on joint solutions to the most pressing security challenges we face.
Thank you.