Moscow [Russia], December 6: Western diplomats on Thursday criticized comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Malta.
Lavrov - whose visit to Malta was his first to an EU member state since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 - said the West has fuelled the war in Ukraine and is responsible for the emergence of a new Cold War that could stumble into direct confrontation.
"The whole thing could move into a hot stage," Lavrov added at the two-day OSCE foreign ministers' meeting, while claiming that Western states had taken control of the OSCE.
His US counterpart Antony Blinken described Lavrov's statements as a "tsunami of disinformation." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha addressed Lavrov in his speech as "the war criminal at this table" without mentioning him by name.
"Our peace plan is: Russia should leave Ukraine and leave us alone," Sybiha said.
He emphasized that Russia is the greatest threat to global security - not only because of its attack on Ukraine, but also because of its military cooperation with Iran and North Korea.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also accused Lavrov of "unbearable lies" about the war in Ukraine.
"You can fool yourself, but you cannot fool us, the 1.3 billion people in [the OSCE region]," she told Lavrov directly at the meeting.
In her speech, Baerbock called on the international community, and in particular the OSCE member states, to continue to work for the organization's fundamental principles of peace, freedom and security, despite some differences of opinion.
The OSCE is one of the few dialogue forums for security and democracy where Western representatives still engage directly with Russia.
While Moscow has withdrawn from several other European institutions, it has remained in the OSCE, seeing it as a platform for communicating its position on the war in Ukraine to the 57 member states.
In his speech, Lavrov warned that the OSCE could fall apart if it no longer provides room for solving problems. For example, the organization could have played a role in the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, Lavrov argued.
Source: Qatar Tribune