Skopje, 15 November 2023 (MIA) – I expect all ministers to attend the OSCE Ministerial Council in Skopje. The European Union's ban on Russian flights doesn’t apply to multilateral events such as OSCE, said Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Bujar Osmani, on Wednesday, regarding the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Ministerial Council in Skopje.

“The EU’s sanctions don’t apply to multilateral events such as OSCE. It is up to the governments to make a decision, however the legal basis [for the decision] exists in the EU. We also need to make such a decision, as well as at least one neighboring country – Bulgaria or Greece. However, we are currently processing the requests, in a couple of days we will come out with a final position,” said Osmani in answer to a journalist’s question.

Regarding the possibility of the other OSCE participating countries opposing Lavrov’s participation in the Ministerial Council, Osmani said this is something that they are monitoring.

“I already said publicly, one of the reasons I traveled to Kiev was to talk about Ukraine’s position. We are still holding discussions with all participating countries in order to ensure the presence of everyone,” said Osmani.

The Foreign Minister reiterated they are expecting the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to participate in the Council as well.

“So far, I haven't received any indications that he won’t be present, which means we are preparing for the arrival of the US State Secretary,” underlined Osmani.

Asked about the progress over the consensus for next year’s OSCE chair, the Foreign Minister underlined that this is by far the most important issue that the Organization faces, because without a Chairperson it will lack the political mandate to continue its work. He outlined several possible scenarios.

“The first scenario that we are working on is to continue to seek support for the sole current candidate, which is Estonia. If we can’t reach a consensus over Estonia, we will look for an alternative country which we will be able to agree on. If we can’t agree on an alternative country by the time of the Ministerial Council in Skopje, then, in theory, there is also the possibility for our country to chair the Organization for one more year,” said the Foreign Minister.

Osmani reiterated that 76 delegations, i.e., 1.000 members of delegations, will attend the event in Skopje, 57 of which are from the participating countries, while the rest are from countries that are a part of the Asian and Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation.

The Foreign Minister stressed that all preparations have been carried out so far for the holding of the “largest event that has ever taken place in North Macedonia”.