Swiss OSCE chair lands in Moscow for talks
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis landed in Moscow on Thursday for a two-day visit as OSCE chair. The aim of the trip is dialogue with "all sides", he wrote on X. A meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is planned for Friday.
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Swiss OSCE chair lands in Moscow for talks
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With this trip, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is reaffirming its willingness to “support efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace in accordance with international law and the Helsinki principles”, Cassis wrote on X on Thursday. He travelled with OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu.
The meeting with Lavrov is scheduled for Friday, a spokeswoman for the Swiss foreign ministry told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. Discussions are planned on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, the OSCE announced in advance. The possible role of the OSCE in promoting a just and lasting peace is to be discussed.
+ What can the Swiss foreign minister – and the OSCE – achieve in Moscow?
The war in Ukraine is not mentioned as a topic in a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry about the upcoming meeting. The talks will focus on overcoming the deep crisis in which the OSCE currently finds itself. According to a Russian statement issued on Thursday, the crisis is the result of “destructive actions by certain Western countries”.
On Monday Cassis travelled to Kyiv together with Sinirlioglu. There they met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.
Cassis has not been to Moscow since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Only a few European heads of government or ministers have travelled to the Russian capital since then.
Cassis was last in Moscow in June 2019, when he opened the new Swiss embassy and met Sergei Lavrov. Among other things, the two foreign ministers discussed the situation in Ukraine.
Adapted from German by AI/ts
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