THE Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced today that he will participate at the OSCE conference in North Macedonia if Bulgaria opens its airspace to the Russian delegation and that some Western countries have asked to meet with him.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the West has sought to isolate Russia and one-on-one meetings between top ministers have become rare.

Lavrov said North Macedonia had invited him to attend the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) foreign ministers’ conference, which includes Canada and the United States, to be held in Skopje from November 30 to December 1st.

“There are already quite a few requests for meetings, coming from representatives of the West,” Lavrov said, after referring to a meeting he had last year with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the summit of the group of twenty developed and developing countries.

Lavrov did not say who requested meetings with him.

THE Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia Bujar Osmani had said this month that he expected Blinken to attend, along with the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, EU and NATO allies, as well as Ukraine.

Osmani said that North Macedonia’s neighbors have not yet made a final decision on the rules for the Russian delegation’s overflight. A spokesman for North Macedonia’s OSCE presidency did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.

“Of course, we will meet everyone,” Lavrov said. “If we are approached, we will never back down or hide.”

The goal of the OSCE, which consists of 57 members, is the prevention of conflicts and security crises.

Bulgaria’s airspace remains closed to Russian aircraft as part of sanctions imposed by the European Union in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation”.