Skopje, 28 November 2023 (MIA) — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe member states' foreign ministers during their Skopje meeting later this week are expected to agree to install Malta as the Vienna-based organization's next chair. 

According to the Brussels media outlet Politico in its playbook on "NATO meets as support for Ukraine wavers," the news of a preliminary deal to elect a new chair — crucial to keeping the organization running — was first reported by Security and Human Rights Monitor. 

"But the plan faces criticism in the Baltics and Ukraine, which see the compromise as a victory for the Kremlin. Russia had blocked Estonia’s bid for the role, which threatened to collapse the organization," Politico writes.

North Macedonia's Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, who as current OSCE chairperson brokered the deal, told Politico in Brussels on Tuesday that he had tried all possible solutions and originally fully backed Estonia — but had to ultimately find a compromise candidate. 

“I don’t think Russia has been that happy with the work of the OSCE,” he told Politico in response to a question whether Estonia’s loss was a Russian victory. 

According to Osmani, by keeping the OSCE “alive, by keeping it functional … we will have an instrument.”

“We have won, the democratic world, those who pursue international rules-based order,” he said, adding that this deal would help the OSCE stay "safe."

According to Politico, the organization faced criticism in Brussels that it had outlived its purpose and failed at preventing the war in Ukraine, but several officials, including Osmani, insisted it could play a crucial role in monitoring any potential cease-fire or peace deal.

“I think OSCE will be the one to jump in if there will be peace in Ukraine,” the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office told the media outlet.

The outlet also points out that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken both plan to attend the Skopje OSCE meeting. They are not scheduled to meet each other, however.

Osmani has confirmed Lavrov's attendance, saying North Macedonia had granted all the necessary visa and travel permits and was now in talks with Greece and Bulgaria for overflight rights. 

Commenting on the possibility that some EU ministers from the Baltics, as well as Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, could refuse to attend as a result, Osmani told Politico: "We are still working on bringing them all to Skopje" and added he would continue pushing for it at the NATO meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

Asked about whom Lavrov was scheduled to meet with — following the Russian foreign minister's statement that some Western countries requested to meet him while in Skopje — Osmani refused to disclose the agenda, Politico writes. mr/