ASRC session on arms control and CSBMs: UK statement

Mr Jonathan Worgan, Deputy Head of Euro-Atlantic Security Policy Unit (EASP), reaffirmed the UK’s full commitment to OSCE’s conventional arms control and confidence and security building instruments. The speech took place at the Annual Security Review Conference (ASRC).

Mr. Chairperson, the UK remains fully committed to our existing conventional arms control and confidence and security building instruments.  Where they are implemented fully, in letter and spirt, they increase transparency and trust, and reduce risk and the room for misunderstanding and unintended escalation. Where there is selective implementation, exploitation of loopholes, or application that is not in the spirit of the agreements, it degrades our instruments, reduces transparency and trust, and increases risk.    

We continue to have significant concerns about the heightened tensions caused by the recent increased Russian military activity on Ukraine’s border and in illegally annexed Crimea. We are disappointed that Russia did not, and still chooses not to, engage with OSCE processes and mechanisms available to provide the necessary transparency with regards to this activity.

Mr Chair, the Vienna Document is a vital confidence and security building measure.  However, as we have said many times, there is an urgent need to modernise the Vienna Document to ensure it is fit for current purpose.  Russia’s ongoing failure to respond effectively to the legitimate concerns raised by its military build-up on Ukraine’s border and in illegally annexed Crimea only serves to highlight this priority. 

We continue to draw attention to the joint proposal to modernise the Vienna Document, supported by thirty-four participating States, as the first and most obvious step for those states who are serious about rebuilding trust and reducing risk.  We continue to point to the joint statement supported by forty-five participating States at the Tirana Ministerial Council expressing their determination to support constructive discussions on Vienna Document modernisation, with a view to making substantial progress on an update by the Stockholm Ministerial Council.  And we continue call on Russia to change course, and to engage constructively to this end. 

Mr. Chair, the security challenges we face are not the result of any lack of appropriate architecture.  We do not need to reinvent any wheels.  Instead we need the political will from all OSCE participating states to restore respect for fundamental OSCE principles, to fully and faithfully implement our existing politico-military instruments, and to update them beginning with modernisation of the Vienna Document.