Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken are expected to confront each other today over the war in Ukraine at the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Malta.
While Ukraine will be the primary political issue, the meeting is also expected to formally approve last-minute agreements on matters such as high-ranking security positions and human rights within the organization. Western powers have long accused Russia of violating human rights and international norms.
This year’s meeting of foreign ministers and other officials from 57 member states across North America, Europe, and Central Asia has been overshadowed by the return of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. His advisers are exploring proposals to end the war, which could grant Russia large portions of Ukraine.
With Trump set to take office in about a month, Western powers are aiming to reaffirm their support for Ukraine, while Russia will likely continue its criticism of the OSCE.
Last year, Lavrov stated that the OSCE “is essentially transforming into an appendage of NATO and the European Union.”
This will be Lavrov’s first visit to the European Union since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The OSCE is the successor to an organization founded during the Cold War to facilitate dialogue between East and West. However, in recent years, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has used its veto power, available to all member states, to block many key decisions, often paralyzing the organization.
This year, however, the countries blocking the OSCE’s budget agreement are Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to diplomats, due to disagreements related to their ongoing conflict over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Diplomats say that this week an agreement was reached to fill four high-ranking positions within the OSCE, including that of Secretary-General, which will be taken by Turkey’s Feridun Sinirlioglu. /REL
