Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived this Thursday morning at the OSCE summit in Malta, where his Ukrainian counterpart is also located, his first visit to a European Union (EU) country since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also attending the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Ta'Qali on the Mediterranean island, but has no plans to meet Sergei Lavrov .
The Russian diplomat, sanctioned by the EU, had not visited the Union since a trip to Stockholm in December 2021, again for an OSCE meeting, according to Russian media.
The OSCE was founded in 1975 to ease tensions between East and West during the Cold War. It has 57 members, from Turkey to Mongolia, including the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as the United States, Ukraine and Russia.
It helps its members coordinate on issues such as human rights and arms control, but Moscow increasingly accuses the group of straying from its principles.
