Baltics, Ukraine to boycott OSCE’s Skopje meeting over Lavrov attendance

In a joint statement, the three Baltic foreign affairs ministers – Latvia’s Krisjanis Karins, Lithuania’s Gabrielius Landsbergis and Estonia’s Margus Tshkna – said they would attend a meeting as Lavrov’s attendance “risks legitimizing aggressor Russia as a rightful member of our community of free nations, trivializing the atrocious crimes Russia has been committing, and putting up with Russia’s blatant violation and contempt of the OSCE fundamental principles and commitments”.

“Russia will use this opportunity to spread its propaganda and undermine the unity of the West,” Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna said.

“The fact is that while the OSCE meeting is being held in Skopje, Russia’s war machine is attacking innocent Ukrainians and deporting children without blinking an eye,” he added.

“Estonia cannot sit at the same table with the aggressor and bear responsibility for the consequences Lavrov’s attendance may bring. It goes against our fundamental principles,” Tsahkna said.

“Lavrov’s place is at a special tribunal, not the OSCE table,” he added.

“Russia’s war of aggression and atrocities against its sovereign and peaceful neighbour Ukraine blatantly violate international law, including the UN Charter, and constitute an attack on the OSCE and its underlying principles,” the ministers said.

They also said it is crucial to put an immediate end to the aggression, withdraw Russian troops from occupied areas, compensate for the destruction, and hold criminals to account.

“The OSCE was originally designed to build European security, to prevent conflicts and to preserve peace. And Russia has, through its unlawful and atrocious actions, proved time and again that it is not a security partner to Europe. In fact, today Europe needs security from and against Russia, rather than together with it,” they stated.

Malta tipped for OSCE chair as body faces Russia show-down over leadership

Amid worries over institutional deadlock, the 57-member Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on Monday (27 November) that Malta should take over the organisation’s rotating chairmanship after Russia barred Estonia from the task.

The eleventh-hour deal comes only …

While explicitly thanking the North Macedonian chairmanship “for the prioritization of the issue of countering Russian aggression against Ukraine” during its stint, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement published shortly after the Baltic one that its delegation will not participate in the OSCE Ministerial meeting at the level of foreign minister.

“The blocking of Estonia’s candidacy for the Chairpersonship of the OSCE in 2024 has become yet another example of Russia’s abuse. Furthermore, Russia illegally detained three Ukrainian OSCE officials who have been in detention for more than 500 days,” the ministry said.

“Russia has created an existential crisis within the OSCE and turned the Organisation into a hostage of its whims and aggression,” it said.

“The presence of the Russian delegation at the meeting at the ministerial level for the first time since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine will only deepen the crisis into which Russia has driven the OSCE,” the statement added.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]