Sawt Falasteen - Russia FM to Malta in first EU trip since Ukraine invasion

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also attending the meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ta'Qali, near Valetta -- although he has no plans to meet Lavrov.

The Russian diplomat, who is sanctioned by the European Union, has not visited the bloc since a December 2021 trip to Stockholm, again for an OSCE meeting, Russian media reported.

The OSCE was founded in 1975 to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War, and now counts 57 members from Turkey to Mongolia, the UK and Canada, as well as the United States, Ukraine and Russia.

It helps its members co-ordinate issues such as human rights and arms control, but Moscow has increasingly accused the group of turning away from its founding principles.

At the last ministerial summit a year ago in North Macedonia, Lavrov accused the OSCE of becoming an "appendage" of NATO and the EU.

Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the organisation, and boycotted the Skopje summit over Lavrov's attendance.

On Thursday, however, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga attended the talks in Malta.

He did not speak to reporters, but Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, an ally of Ukraine, said he personally would not sit at a table with Lavrov.

"Mr Lavrov is coming here to lie about (the) Russian invasion and what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And I'm not going to listen to those lies," he said.

The summit comes at a delicate time for Ukraine.

US president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to press for a quick deal to end the war, leaving Kyiv scrambling to obtain security guarantees from Western allies and supplies of key weaponry before the January inauguration.

- 'Institutional crisis' -

In 2022, OSCE host Poland refused to let Lavrov attend their summit, sparking an angry response from Russia.

Sikorski has questioned why Moscow was still allowed to be part of the OSCE.

A spokesman for summit host Malta told AFP on Wednesday that while he faces an EU asset freeze, there was no travel ban on Lavrov, and said that he was invited in order to "keep some channels of communication open".

Russia's foreign ministry said Lavrov would hold a series of bilateral meetings in Malta, without specifying with whom.

Blinken -- in Malta after paying his last visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels -- was not due to meet Lavrov. They last had a significant meeting in March 2023, at the G20 in Delhi.

Lavrov is set to use this week's event to lambast the organisation's "institutional crisis", Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

She said a number of Western countries were "using this platform for their own interests", arguing that the body had been "Ukrainianised".

The OSCE has been paralysed since the invasion, as Russia has vetoed several major decisions, which require consensus.

The posts of secretary general and three other top officials have been vacant since September due to a lack of agreement over their successors.

Outgoing secretary general Helga Maria Schmid, from Germany, was appointed in December 2020 for a three-year term, but her mandate was extended until September.

Ambassadors have reached agreement on Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu as her successor, a diplomatic source told AFP, but the decision must be approved by ministers.

The ministers in Malta will also be seeking to agree which country will chair the OSCE in 2026 and 2027.

Russia had blocked NATO member Estonia from holding the chairmanship this year. Finland, which joined NATO last year, is up for the post in 2025.

The OSCE sends observers to conflicts, as well as elections around the world. It also runs programmes that aim to combat human trafficking and ensure media freedom.

But its efforts have been hampered by an inability to agree a budget since 2021.

I.Matar--SF-PST