The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, and the Polish Minister, Radosław Sikorski – as well as other European delegations – have left the room of the 31st Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held in Malta, when the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke.
This is the first visit by the head of Russian diplomacy to a European Union country since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
During his speech, Lavrov denounced the uselessness of the OSCE and warned of the danger of the transition from a cold war to a hot one due to the conflict in Ukraine. “There is not a single area left in which the OSCE can play any role even if it is minimally useful in finding answers to direct questions within the framework of its function,” he said when speaking at the ministerial meeting.
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During the meeting, Andrii Sybiha stressed “that the future of European security is currently being decided in Ukraine” and that, to do so, it was necessary to “force the aggressor to accept a broad, just and lasting peace.” Sybiha also accused Russia of interfering in the internal affairs of Georgia, Moldova and the Western Balkan countries, and also denounced that Moscow is “waging a hybrid war against Europe.”
For his part, the President of the OSCE and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Malta, Ian Borg, has shown his support for kyiv, ensuring that “Malta stands with the people of Ukraine until their right to live in peace and security is guaranteed.” within internationally recognized borders.
From cold to hot war
Lavrov has taken advantage of his minutes to accuse the members of NATO and the European Union of marginalizing the OSCE from the political processes underway in the world, alluding to the advent of a new multipolar world order.
In particular, he regretted that the organization maintains a “dead silence” on Ukraine’s actions against Russian culture and religion and that it has not investigated the attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines that unite Russia and Germany, for which the Kremlin blames the United States.
The Russian minister has denounced that after the “Afghan shame” the Western powers needed “a new unifying enemy.” “As a result we have the reincarnation of the Cold War, only now with a much greater risk of it passing into its hot stage,” Lavrov said in this conference that was also attended by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
“The Biden Administration is moving NATO infrastructure to the Asia-Pacific region. Military blocs are being created there, by the way, with a nuclear essence, and military exercises with NATO participation are being expanded in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and around the Korean Peninsula,” he noted. Lavrov. “There is clearly an attempt to destabilize the entire Eurasian continent.”
At the same time, he also took the opportunity to condemn the decision of the Maltese authorities to cancel the visa of his spokesperson, María Zajárova, at the last minute, which he considered an abuse on the part of the OSCE Presidency.
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