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The way is opened for the election of the chairman of the OSCE for 2024

2023-11-27 18:11:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The way is opened for the election of the chairman of the OSCE for 2024

Illustrative photo

The Foreign Minister of North Macedonia and the current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Bujar Osmani announced on Monday that the Ambassadors of the 57 member countries of the organization have agreed to pave the way for the choice of the country that will hold the Presidency of this organization for 2024.

The final decision, for which the unanimous approval of the member states is required, is expected to be taken during the work of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OSCE, which will be held on November 30 and December 1 in Skopje.

Malta has expressed its readiness to preside over the OSCE, after Russia and Belarus had warned of blocking Estonia's candidacy.

Moscow had spoken out against Estonia taking over the presidency in 2021. Estonian authorities had expressed anger over this position and had accused Russia of obstructing the organization's activities, in matters related to the budget or the scope of its missions.

Estonian Foreign Minister Maergus Tsahkna, quoted by the Politiko portal, said that "Russia has violated all the basic principles of the OSCE with its bloody aggression in Ukraine and that Moscow's demands and threats cannot be accepted."

The OSCE consists of 57 countries in Europe, North America and part of Asia, while its mandate includes monitoring elections and supporting peace negotiations.
Meanwhile, Moscow has for a long time criticized the organization and accused it of "turning into a tool of the West", blocking in this way a number of decisions, since their approval requires the unanimous support of the member countries.

The current chairman, Bujar Osmani, has emphasized more than once that the future of the organization could be called into question, if Russia were to block the decisions.

At the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OSCE in Skopje, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is expected to be present.

On the other hand, the government of North Macedonia on Friday lifted the restrictive measure for the flight of Russian planes in its space, in order to enable in this way the participation of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, in the conference.

But, for it to arrive in Skopje, the consent of Sofia or Athens is also needed to give permission to the Russian plane to fly in the respective airspaces.

According to the Reuters news agency, Russian Minister Lavror said this Monday that he would participate in the OSCE meeting if Bulgaria allowed the Russian delegation to fly in its airspace and that several Western countries had requested a meeting with him.

But, probably the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, would boycott the meeting if his Russian counterpart, Lavrov, went there, according to sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Skopje.

The Macedonian authorities have been preparing for the Skopje meeting for months./ VOA