German diplomat Helga Schmid appointed head of OSCE

German diplomat Helga Schmid was appointed OSCE Secretary General on Friday, the rotating Albanian chairmanship announced on Friday, December 4, after several months of vacancy due to disagreements between Westerners and countries close to Russia.

Read also: The OSCE fears a "nightmare" in Belarus and insists on sending a mission

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," wrote on Twitter the Albanian permanent mission accredited to the organization, headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), eagerly awaited on the Belarus and Nagorny Karabakh files, has held its annual Ministerial Council since Thursday, with 57 member countries represented.

After years of tension, no consensus had been found in July to renew the personalities in place and the posts had since remained vacant.

But the OSCE managed to reach a consensus on Friday to appoint four diplomats to its leadership, while Russia called for a rebalancing in favor of its sphere of influence.

Current Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Helga Schmid, involved in the Iranian nuclear issue, has the confidence of both Moscow and Washington.

The West has also agreed to appoint for the first time a Kazakh personality, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, High Commissioner for National Minorities, despite the human rights abuses denounced in this Central Asian country.

However, they insisted that the two most debated functions within the OSCE remain in their hands.

Thus, an Italian, Matteo Mecacci, is now in charge of human rights, while a Portuguese, Maria Teresa Ribeiro, succeeds the French Harlem Désir as special representative for press freedom.

The meeting is taking place this year by video conference, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sweden is due to succeed Albania in the rotating presidency in 2021.

Created during the Cold War to improve dialogue between the West and the USSR, the OSCE covers Europe, Turkey, the former Soviet space republics, the United States and Canada.

According to US Ambassador James Gilmore, the year 2020, marked by the popular uprising in Belarus and the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, "

", even if Turkey and Russia have marginalized Western diplomacy regarding Nagorno Karabakh.