Lavrov is asked to listen to Russia’s crimes in Ukraine at the summit in Skopje

In her speech at the OSCE summit in Skopje, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reacted to the lack of presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in her speech to the summit participants.

“This time, Russia is also represented in this hall, but not its minister, who has only come to speak and not to listen to others. I say to you: stop this war, which is also directed against the OSCE,” Baerbock declared.

She emphasized that this did not require any negotiations or concessions on the part of Ukraine, but only a decision by Russia to respect the principles of the OSCE and withdraw its troops.

Baerbock called on all member states who want to listen to do everything possible to preserve the effectiveness of the OSCE through a joint decision for the European security order.

Baerbock said, among other things, that cooperation within the organization must be further strengthened despite all the hurdles that Russia has presented for more than a year.

The fact that Russia had not succeeded in destroying the OSCE “is an important contribution to our peace order”, said the head of German diplomacy and emphasized that “this peace order must continue”.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, in his capacity as Chairman of the OSCE, reiterated the fact that during North Macedonia’s chairmanship, the OSCE faced the consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine by violating the rules of this organization and of European and human security.

“I have three key messages as a predecessor. North Macedonia took over the Chairmanship of the OSCE at a time of active war and threats to European security and international peace. The Russian aggression against Ukraine violated the rules of this organization and violated European and human security, dialogue and destroyed the lives of people who want to live freely and without fear of war. Instead of collective interests, selfish national interests are being targeted. This created a difficult operating environment and we remained determined to act as defenders of OSCE values and most member states avoided defeatism [defeat] and challenged the existence of the OSCE,” Osmani said.

Stefan Meister, head of the “Programs for International Order and Democracy” department at the German Council on Foreign Relations, had warned that Russia would try to misuse the OSCE summit in Skopje. He had said that the member states should consider the possibility of expelling Russia from the organization in order to make it functional.

“I think Russia is misusing the organization and using it for its own propaganda to block things, so I don’t see it as a [communication] channel,” he said.

/The Geopost