Diplomacy

The OSCE Minsk Group has been disbanded. The decision was taken by the OSCE Permanent Council at its meeting in Vienna on Monday, 1 September. Following the adoption of this decision, the OSCE will take steps to implement the closure of the Minsk Process and its related structures. Only administrative functions, such as the handover of assets and equipment, will continue until the process is completed no later than 1 December 2025. The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Finland Elina Valtonen, and OSCE Secretary General Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu welcome the adoption of a Ministerial Council decision closing the Minsk process and related structures following a Joint Appeal from Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Trump administration will no longer grant visas to Palestinian passport holders wishing to visit the United States, according to a report in The New York Times citing multiple sources within the administration. While there has been no official confirmation yet, if true, this decision represents a significant extension of an earlier announcement to bar a group of Palestinians, including the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, from attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

The annual gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is taking place this week in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. There are 10 member states in the Beijing backed SCO - including China itself, Russia and India, Pakistan and Iran - and 16 dialogue partners and observers, including some, like Armenia and Azerbaijan, who aspire to be full members. Leaders of the 26 countries have been arriving in Tianjin for the summit. The summit itself is largely symbolic but will allow leaders to air common grievances and shared interests. The organisation was created by China, Russia and four Central Asian countries in 2001 as a countermeasure to limit the influence of Western alliances such as NATO. This year's gathering is the largest since the organisation was founded. For Tianjin, the summit has become a major event with banners and billboards promoting it throughout the northern port city.

On Friday afternoon (29 August), the United Nations Security Council held an emergency open briefing on Ukraine   The meeting was requested by Ukraine in a letter it sent on Thursday (28 August) following large-scale Russian aerial attacks conducted overnight on Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine. Council members Denmark, France, Greece, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Slovenia, and the UK supported the meeting request. Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas Miroslav Jenča briefed the Council at the start of the two-hour meeting. Among the participants and speakers was the Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko. Addressing the session, the Head of the EU Delegation to the UN, Ambassador Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis, said that the EU objective remains clear: the EU supports an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire. We also welcome the efforts by the US to seek an end to Russia’s war of aggression and to stop the killing. As EU, we contribute to these efforts in order to achieve a just and lasting peace and long-term security for Ukraine and our continent. I urge all members of this Council to use their influence and maximize pressure on Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire and work towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.” He said that the EU will remain united in providing political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine, as it exercises its inherent right of self-defence. We will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and in defence of the UN Charter and international law. I respectfully submit that this Council, without any wavering or any hesitation, do the same, at a time when Russia intensifies its killings and continues to pursue its illegal objectives, instead of peace.”

For decades, Russia has stood at the centre of the South Caucasus’ security order. No peace deal, no war settlement, no major infrastructure project could be imagined without Moscow’s involvement. Yet this year, for the first time in Azerbaijan’s modern history, that assumption has been openly challenged. A series of diplomatic clashes between Baku and Moscow, followed last week by the U.S.-mediated summit in Washington, show that Azerbaijan is willing to confront Russia more directly than ever before, and that the South Caucasus may now be shifting away from Moscow at an accelerated pace.