Lavrov's Plane Not Allowed Into North Macedonia

• 7.11.2023, 17:02

The Russian minister has to humble himself in order to get to the meeting of the heads of the OSCE Foreign Ministry.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked for permission to participate in the meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Skopje. The head of the Foreign Ministry of North Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, told Agence France Presse about this, clarifying that his country will not be able to receive the plane of the Russian delegation.

“There are several problems related to this requirement,” Osmani said. “The airspace of North Macedonia, which is not a member of the European Union, but joined the sanctions against Moscow, is closed to Russian aircraft. The same applies to neighboring states”.

“It will depend on the decisions that will be made in the next few days,” said the Macedonian minister. He noted that according to OSCE rules, all 57 of its members must attend the meeting.

Last year's OSCE ministerial meeting, which took place in Warsaw, also went without Lavrov. The Polish authorities refused to let the Russian minister into the country, which Moscow called an “unprecedented and provocative” step. Instead of Lavrov, the delegation was headed by the permanent representative of Russia to the OSCE, Alexander Lukashevich.