A major Cold War-era security institution faces the persistent risk of collapse due to diplomatic clashes with Russia over the war in Ukraine.

“I will do whatever it takes to keep the organization alive, but also functioning,” Maltese Foreign Minister Ian Borg, the new chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said this week.

Those tasks are easier said than done. Malta agreed to chair the OSCE for 2024 in a late-November deal necessitated by Russia’s refusal to allow Estonia to take the rotating role of chair due to the high tensions between Moscow and the NATO ally, which is a voluble supporter of Ukraine. Malta, a member of the European Union with a constitutional neutrality clause, emerged as the compromise choice, but Borg opened his tenure by affirming his “unequivocal commitment” to condemning Russia’s “illegal war of aggression” against Ukraine.

“The challenges faced by Ukraine will be addressed throughout our program,” Borg said. “I, and the Maltese chairpersonship, will continue to demand Russia’s full, unconditional, and immediate withdrawal from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

That rebuke drew a rebuke from Russia’s envoy to the organization, who argued that Borg has no right to make a statement that doesn’t reflect the “consensually agreed approaches” of the OSCE, which includes Russia.

“Total Ukrainianization of the OSCE agenda and activities to the detriment of work on other tracks is absolutely inadmissible,” Russian Ambassador Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday, per a translation from state-run TASS. “Now in your speech you have gone beyond this framework, violating the above mentioned decision. This needs to be corrected.”

The OSCE, which was founded during “the détente phase of the early 1970s,” has been paralyzed by disputes stemming from the war, including Russia’s arrest of three Ukrainians who worked for the organization prior to their arrest during Russia’s invasion.

“Russia is blocking the work of the entire organization because for years now, Moscow has prevented the organization from adopting its budget, holding official OSCE events, and extending foreign missions, resulting in the end of all OSCE foreign missions in Ukraine, which has been subjected to Russia’s aggression,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in November. “Although the activities of the OSCE have been beset by confrontations from the start, the organization has never faced a graver crisis than now.”

Finland is slated to take over as chair from Malta in 2025, “but Borg must secure consensus on the country that will take the lead in 2026,” as the Times of Malta noted. And Russian authorities have made clear that they want him to abandon the policy of putting diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin.

“These past two years have shown that pursuing a head-in-the-sand policy … will lead nowhere, destroying the OSCE,” Lukashevich said.

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Borg intends to visit Kyiv next week in order “to listen” for ways that the OSCE might aid the war-torn country. 

“Notwithstanding our military neutrality clause, Malta was very clear from day one — also, because we believe that respecting the UN charters, by respecting the rule of law and that might is not right — this is our own defense as well, as a neutral country,” he told reporters Thursday.