Russia’s Lavrov To Visit Malta In First EU Trip Since Ukraine Offensive

It is not clear if Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga will attend

Tetiana DZHAFAROVA

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga has been invited to the summit, but Kyiv has not said whether he will attend. There was no immediate reaction in Ukraine over the news that Lavrov would attend.

Ukraine’s ex-foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, as well as top diplomats from Baltic states boycotted last year’s meeting in protest.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, an ally of Ukraine, said there would be “no talks” with Lavrov in Malta and questioned why Moscow was still allowed to be part of the OSCE.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Lavrov would hold a series of bilateral meetings in Malta, without specifying with whom.

Kyiv has called for Russia to be expelled from the body, which was founded to ease East-West tensions during the Cold War.

Speaking at the summit last year, Lavrov said the OSCE was being “turned into an appendage of NATO and the EU”.

Russia’s foreign ministry returned to that theme on Wednesday.

“The current institutional crisis of the OSCE has resulted from the destructive actions of a number of Western countries that are using this platform for their own interests,” it said.

Arguing that the body had been “Ukrainianised”, it called for closer cooperation with Moscow-led groups such as the BRICS club of developing nations.

Zakharova also said that her own visa to attend the Malta summit had been “annulled” at the last minute. She said that the organisers had told Moscow that the decision had been “due to circumstances beyond their control”.

The OSCE sends observers to conflicts and elections around the world, as well as running programmes to combat human trafficking and ensure media freedom.

But since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, it has struggled to operate, as Russia has vetoed several major decisions, which require consensus.

Russian lawmakers earlier this year voted to suspend participation in the body’s parliamentary assembly, branding it anti-Russian and discriminatory.

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Publish date : 2024-12-04 07:51:00

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