Ministers from half of NATO countries ignore OSCE meeting due to Lavrov's presence

The meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which began in the capital of North Macedonia, Skopje, was ignored by ministers from 13 of the 31 members of the North Atlantic Alliance due to the presence of Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister.

Source: European Pravda article OSCE did not saddle Lavrov: how attempt to "bend" to Russia's top diplomat only deepened problems

Details: The process of boycotting the OSCE meeting due to the participation of the Russian Foreign Minister was launched by Dmytro Kuleba's demarche. It was publicly supported by the Baltic states and Poland, which together participated in the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

"According to European Pravda, 13 out of 31 NATO member states refused to travel to Skopje and did not board the charter that transported ministers from one meeting to another," the article says.

But even those ministers who did arrive in Skopje, after a joint dinner, which Lavrov did not attend, decided not to be present at the meeting itself and left their deputies, assistants or even ambassadors to speak instead.

These included Secretary of State Antony Blinken and EU diplomat Josep Borrell, who entrusted the speech to Lithuanian diplomat Ambassador Rasa Ostrauskaite. The foreign ministers of the UK, Canada, Italy, Poland, Belgium, and others did not attend the event.

In addition, during Lavrov's speech at the meeting, Ukraine and representatives of several other countries demonstratively left the room. The Russian foreign minister reacted with a nervous phrase, "Leave me alone!"

At the same time, Hungarian Minister Péter Szijjártó, who called for an end to arms supplies to Ukraine, and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, who met with Lavrov "at the request of the OSCE" and called for "no fear of dialogue," expectedly met separately.

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