Ukraine's Foreign Minister to attend OSCE meeting in Malta alongside Russia's Lavrov
Photo: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, will visit Malta to participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting on December 4-5. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also expected to attend, according to Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s European service, and Russian media.
According to the MFA, Sybiha will deliver a speech at the plenary session of the OSCE ministerial meeting and hold several bilateral talks with representatives of Ukraine’s partner countries.
"The key topics of the speech and negotiations will be Russian aggression against Ukraine, its security implications within and beyond the OSCE region, and the need for a comprehensive, just, and sustainable peace based on the Peace Formula and respect for the UN Charter," the MFA stated.
Meanwhile, media reports that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been invited to the meeting. This is expected to be Lavrov's first visit to an EU country since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Lavrov remains under EU sanctions, but his travel ban may be temporarily lifted to facilitate participation in international meetings within EU territory.
OSCE Ministerial Council meeting
The last OSCE Ministerial Council meeting took place in November 2023 in Skopje, North Macedonia. It was marked by a boycott of Lavrov by the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as strong assurances of support for Ukraine from European partners.
Read more about the reasons in the material by RBC-Ukraine.
