Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine this Thursday (5), at an annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe ( OSCE) in Malta.
Although the topic of war in Ukraine is dominant, the meeting is also expected to formally approve last-minute agreements covering issues such as senior positions in the OSCE.
Where Western powers often accuse Russia of disrespecting human rights and other international norms.
But the organization’s most important annual decision – which country will be next to hold the annual rotating presidency – has already been decided.
Finland will take over on the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, which laid the foundations of the current OSCE.
The meeting of foreign ministers and other officials from 57 participating states from North America, Europe and Central Asia was overshadowed this year by the return of US President-elect Donald Trump, whose advisers are putting forward proposals to end the war that would give way. much of Ukraine to Russia.
With Trump’s inauguration approaching, Western powers plan to reiterate their support for Ukraine, while Russia is likely to renew its criticism of the organization.
Lavrov said last year that the organization was “essentially being turned into an appendage of NATO and the European Union.”
This is the Russian minister’s first trip to the European Union since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The OSCE is the successor to an organization created during the Cold War so that East and West could interact with each other. However, in recent years, and especially since the invasion, the Russian government has used what is effectively a veto that each country has to block important decisions, often damaging the organization.
This year, however, the countries blocking the OSCE budget deal are Armenia and Azerbaijan, not Russia, diplomats reported, due to issues related to the conflict in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Diplomats say that this week an agreement was reached to fill four senior OSCE positions, including that of secretary general, which will be filled by Turkey’s Feridun Sinirlioglu, who was foreign minister in an interim government in 2015.
Understand the War between Russia and Ukraine
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and entered the territory from three fronts: through the Russian border, through Crimea and through Belarus, a country that is a strong ally of the Kremlin. Forces loyal to President Vladimir Putin made significant advances in the first few days, but the Ukrainians managed to maintain control of Kiev, even though the city was also attacked.
The invasion was criticized internationally and the Kremlin was the target of Western economic sanctions.
In October 2024, after thousands of deaths, the war in Ukraine entered what analysts describe as its most dangerous moment yet.
Tensions rose when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the use of an intermediate-range hypersonic missile during an attack on Ukrainian soil. The projectile carried conventional warheads, but is capable of carrying nuclear material.
The launch took place after Ukraine launched an offensive inside Russian territory using weapons manufactured by Western powers, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
Western intelligence reports that Russia is using North Korean troops in the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow and Pyongyang neither deny nor confirm the report.
President Vladimir Putin, who replaced his defense minister in May, has said that Russian forces are advancing much more effectively — and that Russia will achieve all of its objectives in Ukraine, although he did not elaborate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he believes Putin’s main goals are to occupy the entire Donbass region, encompassing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and to expel Ukrainian troops from Russia’s Kursk region, which they have controlled parts of since August. .
This content was originally published in Blinken and Lavrov participate in security meeting in Europe on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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