Lavrov is preparing to make his first visit to the EU since the start of the invasion of Ukraine

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MADRID Dec. 4 () –

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, will participate in the meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that Malta will host on Thursday and Friday, an event that will mark the first visit of the head of Russian diplomacy to an EU country since the start of the military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed this Wednesday the start of a tour that it had already anticipated a month ago and that will initially take it to Valletta, the Maltese capital. He will later travel to Qatar, according to the ministerial spokesperson, Maria Zajarova, who clarified that the contacts he will maintain with international leaders during the tour are still being examined.

Lavrov’s presence at the OSCE meeting, convened at ministerial level, will mark the minister’s first trip to an EU country since Russian forces entered Ukraine in February 2022. Lavrov himself is on the blacklist of sanctions from the European bloc, although there is no travel ban on him.

The assistance has generated unrest, especially among Eastern European countries such as Poland or the Baltics. The governments of Lithuania and Estonia have chosen to lower the level of their delegation in the aforementioned forum, which also has among its guests the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, and the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Andri Sibiga.

The war in Ukraine will, in fact, be one of the main points on the agenda. Official sources cited by the ‘Times of Malta’ newspaper have assured that Lavrov will be absent from the formal dinner on the first day, focused on Russian aggression against the neighboring country.

The presence of Russia is generally the cause of debate and controversy when it comes to forums in which countries that have imposed sanctions against Moscow are also present, such as the OSCE or the G20. Lavrov himself was the one who led the Russian delegation to the G20 leaders’ summit held in November in Rio de Janeiro, convened at the level of heads of state and government.