Blinken arrives in Skopje, meets with Minister Osmani

After meeting with Osman, Blinken will participate in the work dinner organised in the margins of the OSCE summit, which begins on November 30th and ends on December 1st. According to diplomatic sources, Blinken will leave Northern Macedonia after dinner, while Russian diplomacy chief Sergey Lavrov will arrive in Skopje later this evening.

Blinken said he's pleased Malta was elected as chairman of the next O summit. The SEU in 2024.

“You have done an extremely good job, you have managed to expand the OSCE mission despite major obstacles. I'm glad Malta's gonna take the batallion. We have a strategic partnership that is really focused on the work we do together as allies and partners, but also on the work we do together at the bilateral level”, Blinken said.

In an interview for Radio Free Europe on Wednesday, Osman rejected estimates that Russia has won by voting for Malta to be the organisation's leader in 2017, after Moscow vetoed Estonia, a NATO member state.

US Secretary of State made no further comments about O Council of Ministers meeting The SEU and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's participation in it.

Lavrov's participation in the meeting was defeated by Skopje and Sofia, which temporarily suspended sanctions imposed by the European Union for Russian aircraft flights due to Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The permit is temporary and valid only for the meeting of the OSCE Council of Ministers, or 3 hours before and 72 hours after the scheduled date.

76 delegations from 57 member states and partner states of the organisation will participate in the OSCE meeting.

But removing the ban on Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov made participation in the O Ministerial Council The SEU cancels Ukraine's foreign ministers, Dmitry Kuleba, and the Baltic countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Meanwhile, Blinken has said the US strongly supports Euro-Atlantic integration and work to strengthen the democratic institutions of Northern Macedonia.

“We strongly support the work you are doing for the largest diversification of energy in the region and beyond, which will have a huge impact on all of this. The US can count as a strong partner and for this reason, I am here tonight not only for the OSCE, but also for Northern Macedonia and to show how much we value the partnership we have”, he said. / REL