Several countries have refused to attend a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) slated to begin on Thursday, November 30, 2023.
The two-day meeting, to be held in the North Macedonian capital; Skopje, has Ukraine as the main focus.
However, with Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov attending, Baltic nations and Ukraine have voiced their refusal to attend.
Lavrov, who is under European sanctions, had to ask permission to fly over EU airspace to attend the two-day meeting.
Bulgaria said that it would open its airspace to Lavrov, triggering furious reactions from Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The OSCE is the successor to an organisation set up during the Cold War as a place for Soviet and Western powers to engage but is now largely paralyzed as Russia keeps using what is effectively a veto each country has at the security and rights body.
While only Belarus regularly sides with Russia at OSCE meetings, absentee nations worry Western powers’ commitment to supporting Ukraine is wavering, and fear Lavrov will use the gathering as a platform.
Latvian Foreign Minister, Krisjanis Karins said, “It just so happens that the aggressor country is having a veto, and in a sense trying to hijack the agenda of the OSCE. I think that is simply wrong.”
“How can you talk with an aggressor who is committing genocide, full aggression against another member state Ukraine?” Estonian Foreign Minister, Margus Tsahkna told reporters.
“So I decided to together with my colleagues Latvia and Lithuania and also the Ukrainian foreign minister not to participate in the meeting in Skopje because I think that instead of sitting there together with Lavrov around the table, Lavrov should be put on trial for war crimes.”
Margus Tsahkna
Poland, which hosted the last meeting nine months after Russia invaded Ukraine, did not invite Lavrov then.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock decided to attend the OSCE Meeting.
Defending her plans to participate in the meeting despite Russian attendance, Baerbock said that it is important to oppose Russia’s “imperial madness” at the meeting.
She also argued that more cooperation and security are badly needed in Europe right now.
Baerbock, speaking on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, said that she understood different feelings, particularly in Eastern Europe, about sitting down with Russian officials.
Nonetheless, she said that she intended to do everything possible to prevent Russia’s foreign minister from destroying the OSCE.
As an example, Baerbock cited efforts to address financial problems at the organization, which was founded in 1975 during the Cold War as a forum for East-West dialogue.
Baerbock said Russia was also seeking to block current OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid, a German, from extending her term in office.
Moscow Criticizes Attempts To Exclude Russia From OSCE Meeting
Russia accused Western countries of attempting to prevent its officials from attending the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting.
Ukraine and the Baltic states said they would skip the event over Lavrov’s attendance, arguing Russia should be excluded for its war on Ukraine.
“We see attempts by part of the West to do everything possible to hinder our country’s normal participation at this meeting,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
She accused some countries – without naming them – of threatening “the very existence of the organisation just to satisfy their ambitions”.
The OSCE has 57 members, including both Ukraine and Russia.
The group has been in crisis since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Among the issues is that OSCE decisions generally require the unanimous consensus of all members.
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