OSCE chair: is Lawrow coming to Lugano?

Switzerland is talking as an intermediary between Russia and Ukraine. In the background, the Federal Council is preparing the Swiss Chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). This task will probably bring a controversial guest into the country next year.

At the beginning of December 2026, the otherwise tranquil Lugano-Agno airfield is likely to record many starts and landings. Then the summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) takes place in Lugano.

Switzerland will take over the OSCE chair in 2026. Piquant: The organization is one of the last remaining international forums, in which Russia is still there and sits at the table together with Ukraine and the USA. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis (FDP) will formally preserve next year of the organization with 57 member states.

It is quite possible that a machine with Putin’s chief diplomat Sergei Lawrow will also land on board in Lugano-Agno in the next but one. It is one of the customs that the chairman invites the Foreign Minister of all member states to the annual summit.

At the last summit, Lawrow scolded the west

Russia’s Foreign Minister Lawrov used his appearance at the last OSCE summit in December 2024 to present the Ukrainian government as a neo-Nazi regime and to blame the West in Ukraine.

The OSCE or its predecessor organization was founded in 1975 during the Cold War. It offered a frame for the dialogue between East and West. Switzerland was one of the 35 founding members.

Today the OSCE belong to 57 countries, the Post Soviet region as well as the USA and Canada. It is the largest regional security organization in the world. Your goals: peacekeeping and reconstruction according to conflicts.

But the international tensions also put a strain on the OSCE, especially the war in Ukraine. Due to the necessary unanimity in central questions, the organization is often blocked. Important top offices could recently only be filled several times after months of post. In addition, the OSCE is notoriously at cash and can often only operate with provisional budgets.

Against this background, the Federal Council has set five priorities for the Swiss chair. Among other things, Switzerland wants to maintain the ability to act and strengthen the inclusive dialogue between all member states.

Federal Council intensifies mediation role

This fits that Switzerland is currently again increasingly in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Last Wednesday CH Media had revealed that the Swiss top diplomat Gabriel Lüchinger will travel to a high -ranking meeting of national security advisors in Moscow this week.. The trip has been denied with European partner countries beforehand. Lüchinger said on the phone on Thursday « Tages-Anzeiger » With Andrij Jermak, the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office.

Unlike other western states, Switzerland never completely had the thread of talk to Moscow off. The preparation for next year’s OSCE chairmanship now offers additional options for dialogue.

It is questionable whether Switzerland will bear the current mediation efforts. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reinforced the attacks in Ukraine and shows no will to substantial negotiations.

For the last time, Switzerland was available to the OSCE in 2014. At that time, the organization played an important role in negotiations for an armistice to end the fights in eastern Ukraine. She then monitored whether it is observed at the front. However, this commitment did not bring a permanent peace for Ukraine.