Russia's Lavrov Arrives in North Macedonia for OSCE Foreign Minister's Meeting
SKOPJE (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, to participate in the 30th Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), scheduled to be held from Thursday-Friday, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Lavrov is expected to hold a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit along with participation in the OSCE multilateral meetings. At the same time, Zakharova said Moscow was recording attempts by some countries of the West to interfere with Russia’s normal participation in the council.
It is Lavrov's first visit to Europe since the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Lavrov did not participate in a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council last December in the Polish city of Lodz when Poland, as a then-chairing country of the OSCE, did not allow Lavrov to take part in the meeting as Warsaw said it believed it was necessary to "absolutely isolate" Russia in the international arena amid its military operation in Ukraine.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that it had granted permission for Lavrov's plane to fly over the Balkan country's airspace to North Macedonia for the meeting. However, the minister's plane had to fly over the airspace of Greece as Sofia refused the overflight since the initial approval did not apply to Zakharova, who was on board.
On Tuesday, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced in a joint statement that they refused to take part in the OSCE ministerial meeting. The three top diplomats said Lavrov's participation would "only provide Russia with yet another propaganda opportunity." Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko also announced that the country's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, would skip the meeting over the decision to allow the Russian delegation to attend.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the agenda of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has been almost completely "Ukrainized" and that the key topic of the upcoming OSCE Ministerial Council in North Macedonia's capital, Skopje, will be the crisis in the organization.
"The key topic of the upcoming Ministerial Council will be the crisis situation in the OSCE. We look forward to the opportunity to discuss the problems that have accumulated in the organization," the foreign ministry said on the website.
The ministry said that "the current deep crisis of the OSCE has become a result of the destructive actions of a number of Western countries, using the organization in their own interests and neglecting the fundamental principles of its work." The ministry also said that "since 2022, the OSCE agenda has been almost completely 'Ukrainized,'" adding that "the practice of replacing consensus annual events with uncoordinated ersatz formats" has been widely used in the organization's work.
