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Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has travelled to Malta for a European safety summit, marking his first go to to an EU state for the reason that full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
His Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiga, who can also be attending the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) assembly, walked out of the corridor forward of Lavrov’s remarks, in keeping with the nation’s international ministry.
Lavrov’s attendance has proved controversial, with Poland’s international minister refusing to fulfill him and Sybiga branding the diplomat a “war criminal”.
The Russian international minister accused the West of fuelling a brand new Cold War “with a much greater risk of a transition to a hot one”.
Sybiga mentioned Russia’s involvement within the OSCE was opposite to the organisation’s goals, describing it because the “biggest threat to our common security”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken additionally attended. He accused Russia of escalating the struggle in Ukraine and spreading a “tsunami of misinformation”.
“Let’s not fool ourselves and let’s not allow [Lavrov] or anyone else to fool us,” he mentioned.
“This is not about and has never been about Russia’s security. This is about Mr Putin’s imperial project to erase Ukraine from the map.”
Blinken and Lavrov, who’ve had restricted interplay for the reason that struggle in Ukraine started, usually are not scheduled to fulfill on the summit.
Kyiv boycotted final yr’s OSCE assembly in North Macedonia, which isn’t an EU member, on account of Lavrov’s attendance and has beforehand referred to as for Russia’s expulsion from the group.
Several diplomats and officers had been seen leaving the corridor forward of Lavrov’s remarks.
Moscow has grown more and more vital of the OSCE, which was set as much as ease east-west tensions throughout the Cold War and goals to stop battle and handle crises in Europe.
The discussion board of 57 states meets to debate safety points on the continent and carries out sensible safety work, together with sending observers to conflicts and elections globally.
Last yr, Lavrov claimed the OSCE was “being turned into an appendage of Nato and the European Union”, whereas Russia has hampered the group’s potential to perform lately by vetoing a number of main selections.
Moscow voted to droop its involvement in its parliamentary meeting earlier this yr, calling it anti-Russian and discriminatory.
Ahead of this week’s summit, Russian international ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mentioned Lavrov would use the event to criticise the OSCE’s “institutional crisis”.
She mentioned the OSCE had been “Ukrainised” and accused Western states of “using this platform for their own interests”.
Zakharova additionally wrote on Telegram that Malta had annulled her visa to accompany Lavrov to the assembly.
The Maltese international affairs workplace mentioned that three OSCE member nations had objected to extending the visa to Zakharova, who’s going through a journey ban.
While Lavrov is topic to EU sanctions, he’s not beneath a journey ban.
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