Ukraine and the Baltic countries announced a boycott of the next ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Tuesday due to the presence of Russian diplomatic chief Sergei Lavrov.
The 30th meeting of foreign ministers of the 57 OSCE member states will take place on Thursday and Friday in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.
The announcement of a boycott by Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was made almost simultaneously.
Minister “Dmitry Kuleba will boycott the OSCE ministerial meeting after the decision to allow Lavrov’s presence,” official representative of Ukrainian diplomacy Oleg Nikolenko told the French AFP agency.
Nikolenko said that Kyiv is grateful to Skopje for giving priority attention to the issue of Russian aggression against Ukraine during its chairmanship of the OSCE, the Ukrinform agency reported.
According to the Ukrainian news agency, the spokesman accused Moscow of creating “an existential crisis in the OSCE” and making the organization “hostage to its whims and aggression.”
“The presence of the Russian delegation at the ministerial meeting, for the first time since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, will only deepen the crisis into which Russia has led the OSCE,” he said.
The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said in a joint statement that they would also not participate in the OSCE meeting.
Lavrov’s presence at the meeting “risks legitimizing aggressor Russia as a full member of our community of free nations,” they said in a joint statement, quoted by AFP.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, triggering a war with no end in sight and countless civilian and military casualties.
The OSCE, headquartered in Vienna, is the world’s largest regional security organization, covering all European states, Russia, Central Asia, Mongolia, the United States and Canada.
The population of the OSCE countries exceeds one billion people.
Portugal is one of 35 countries that signed the Helsinki Final Act of 1 August 1975, which established the principles of relations between participating states.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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