Madame Chair, the European Union and its Member States would like to extend our appreciation to the Albanian OSCE Chairmanship and the German FSC Chair for their commitment, tireless efforts and able handling of our meetings in the past weeks ahead of and during the Ministerial Council. We welcome that the Ministerial Council adopted a number of important decisions, including on the top management of our organisation. However, we cannot deny that we had a higher level of ambition regarding the outcome in many areas where consensus could not be found, often due to the opposition of one or two participating States, including in the area of the work of this Forum.
We regret that an agreement on the normative aspects of SALW and SCA could not be reached. Nonetheless, we reaffirm the necessity for continuous work in an area which is of crucial importance to all of us, as was demonstrated by the recent terrorist attacks, including here in Vienna. The EU and its Member States will continue to invest considerable resources in the fight against the illicit trafficking of SALW and SCA. We also regret that consensus on the Declaration marking the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Document could not be reached. We are determined to continue to support the process of its modernization and hope to achieve substantial progress next year. Negotiation is a path to rebuild trust and confidence. We urge all participating States to engage actively and constructively in these discussions. We note with satisfaction that the Joint Statement on the Vienna Document was signed by 45 participating The OSCE Secretariat bears no responsibility for the content of this document and circulates it without altering its content. The distribution by OSCE Conference Services of this document is without prejudice to OSCE decisions, as set out in documents agreed by OSCE participating States.
States. We also reiterate the need to work towards creating an environment conducive to reinvigorating Conventional Arms Control and CSBMs. We reiterate our expectation that existing Conventional Arms Control and CSBM commitments be implemented in full by all participating States and we call for full adherence to the provisions of the relevant instruments. We highly value and actively support the Structured Dialogue as a meaningful, transparent, inclusive, state-owned and statedriven process for in-depth exchanges on the current and future challenges and risks to security in the OSCE area.
Gender equality is a cross-cutting issue across all dimensions, including security, which remains a priority for the EU within the OSCE. We regret that no consensus could be reached on the Draft Decision on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in the areas of work of the FSC, especially this year when we mark the 20th anniversary of this landmark resolution. The EU and its Member States remain determined to continue to lead globally on gender issues, including in the OSCE context and we will not spare efforts towards full implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We are pleased that the Joint Statement on UNSCR 1325 was supported by 52 participating States.
Finally, our sincere thanks go to the colleagues from the FSC support section in the OSCE Secretariat. We highly appreciate their dedication and support to the work of our Forum throughout the whole year, and in particular during the difficult negotiations ahead of and during the Ministerial Council, which this time were conducted in the challenging online environment.
The Candidate Countries REPUBLIC of NORTH MACEDONIA*, MONTENEGRO* and ALBANIA*, the Country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and Potential Candidate BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA, and the EFTA countries ICELAND, LIECHTENSTEIN and NORWAY, members of the European Economic Area, as well as UKRAINE, the REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA, GEORGIA, ANDORRA and SAN MARINO align themselves with this statement.
* Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.