News

Today, on May 7th, 2020, at the 1266th meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the 75th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe was commemorated.

During this meeting that was held in the form of a videoconference, the Permanent Council of the OSCE was addressed by Ambassador M. Küchler, Chairwoman of the German Presidency to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Ambassador W. Paul, Special Envoy for the International contacts of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial, as well as a Permanent Representatives of OSCE participating States.

In their interventions, the OSCE participating States remembered and paid tribute to all the victims of the Second World War, in particular the victims of the Holocaust, as well as sacrifices of the Allied troops that fought and defeated Nazi regime. The need to comprehensively assess the main causes and consequences of this war was widely underlined, and calls to avoid unilateral interpretation of history, falsification of historical facts and their manipulation were expressed. Several delegations also referred to recent attempts to violate international law and its principles, such as sovereignty and territorial integrity of OSCE participating States, as well as to undermine human rights, fundamental freedoms and the principle of rule of law.

The Joint statement by the Presidents of the three Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – that was announced earlier today, was also delivered in the meeting. In this statement the Presidents underlined that even if the end of the Second World War in 1945 restored peace for many nations of the world, it did not mark freedom to the nations of Central and Eastern Europe. The independence of the Baltic States was restored only in 1990-1991, after 5 decades of Soviet occupation.

Full text of the Joint statement of the Presidents of the three Baltic States can be read here.