Russia’s Lavrov reportedly to make first visit to EU country since launching full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov plans to visit Malta in December to attend the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) Ministerial Council meeting, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Vedomosti newspaper on October 31.

If the visit happens, it will be Lavrovhis first trip to an EU country since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The last time Lavrov visited a eu the country was in 2021 when he traveled to the OSCE meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. He also visited UN General Assembly to New York several times during Moscow’s total war.

While both the EU and the US imposed sanctions on Lavrov in February 2022, they did not impose a travel ban such as the EU and the UK she wanted to stay open diplomatic channels with Russia.

According to the Maltese embassy in Russia, the decision to hold the meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers scheduled for December 5-6 “applies to all (its) members, including the Russian Federation,” the Russian newspaper wrote.

In 2023, Lavrov participated in OSCE Summit in North Macedonia, which caused a rift among OSCE members, leading to a boycott of the meeting of the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states.

The OSCE was established in the 1970s as the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, which provided a platform for dialogue between the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc during the Cold War.

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