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The head of Russian diplomacy in the dock at an OSCE summit in Malta
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, treated in particular by his Ukrainian counterpart as a “war criminal” during an OSCE summit on Thursday in Malta, found himself in the dock for his first visit to a country of the European Union (EU) since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.”Ukraine continues to fight for its right to exist. And the Russian war criminal at this table must know: Ukraine will win this law and justice will prevail”, declared the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Andriï Sybiga at this meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Moscow “lies” when it speaks of peace and that it represents “the most important threat” to security in Europe, he said. “Mr. Lavrov is coming here to lie about the Russian invasion and what Russia is doing in Ukraine. not sit at the same table as Mr. Lavrov,” said the head of Polish diplomacy Radoslaw Sikorski. Lavrov defended himself by accusing the United States, whose Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also present in Malta, of “destabilizing the Eurasian continent”, judging that the new “cold war” threatens to become “hot”. “I regret that our colleague, Mr. Lavrov, left the room, not giving me the courtesy of listening to us as we listened to him. And of course, our Russian colleague is very good at drowning listeners under a tsunami of disinformation”, for his part retorted Mr. Blinken. 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. During the last ministerial summit a year ago in Macedonia, North, Mr. Lavrov had accused the OSCE of becoming an “appendage” of NATO and the EU. Ukraine had demanded that Russia be excluded from the organization and had boycotted the Skopje summit due to the presence of Mr. Lavrov. Maltese foreign minister Ian Borg opened the debates on Thursday by calling on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine, while Antony Blinken accused Lavrov of spreading a “tsunami of disinformation “Many other participants denounced Russian aggression at the summit, which came at a delicate time for Ukraine, as US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to push for a quick deal to end to war.Mr. Blinken, who is in Malta after making his last visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, had his last important meeting with Mr. Lavrov in March 2023, during the G20 in New Delhi.- Institutional crisis -In 2022 , Poland, host of the OSCE, had refused to allow Mr. Lavrov to participate in the summit, which had angered Russia. A spokesperson for Malta, host country of the summit, said Mr Lavrov was subject to an EU asset freeze, but was not banned from traveling and had been invited in order to “maintain certain channels of communication The OSCE has been paralyzed since the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, with Russia vetoing several major decisions requiring consensus. The positions of secretary general and three other senior officials of the organization are vacant since September, lack of agreement on their successors. The outgoing secretary general, the German Helga Maria Schmid, was appointed in December 2020 for a three-year mandate, but her mandate was extended until September. The ambassadors set out to agreement on the Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu to succeed him, a diplomatic source told AFP, but the decision must be approved by the ministers meeting in Malta. The latter will also have to agree on the country which will chair the OSCE in 2026 and 2027. Russia prevented Estonia, a NATO member, from assuming the presidency this year, while in 2025, it is Finland, which joined the NATO last year, which will assume the presidency. The OSCE sends observers to conflicts and elections around the world. It also runs programs aimed at combating human trafficking and ensuring media freedom. But its efforts have been hampered by the inability to agree on a budget since 2021. bur-ar-lb- ljm/glr/cm
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