In his speech, the Foreign Minister reiterated Spain's solidarity with Israel and its condemnation of Hamas's brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attack, and once again called for compliance with international humanitarian law, stressing that the truce must be consolidated immediately in order to bring about a definitive ceasefire, with the unconditional release of all hostages.
According to José Manuel Albares, "we are facing the most critical moment in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall". In his opinion, "the OSCE's comprehensive notion of security is more necessary than ever", as well as closer ties with the OSCE's Mediterranean and Asian partners for cooperation, "essential in the defence of a rules-based international order". "Our organisation", he concluded, "must serve on a daily basis the purpose for which it was created, which is the rapprochement of often divergent countries, based on the rule of consensus”.
The Ministerial Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is the main decision-making body of the organisation and is held in the country that holds the annual Chairmanship-in-Office: Sweden (2021), Poland (2022) and North Macedonia (2023). The 2024 chairmanship will be held by Malta. Spain held the chairmanship of this multilateral body, heir to the Helsinki Act, in 2007 and currently co-chairs the Group of Friends of Youth along with Kyrgyzstan and the United States.