US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will attend an OSCE meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which is being boycotted by Ukraine and the Baltic states. This was reported by a representative of the US State Department to the Voice of America.


Answering a question about the possibility of any meeting between Blinken and Lavrov, the official said: "We do not expect that."


The meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in North Macedonia is scheduled to take place in Skopje on November 30-December 1. The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania have announced that they will boycott the meeting because of Lavrov's presence there.


"We respect the ability of each country to decide whether they should participate or not. We believe that this is a useful forum for interaction with OSCE members and that's why we're going to attend," said a US State Department spokesman.


When asked what message Anthony Blinken is going to this meeting with, the State Department representative said: "I think that the OSCE is a really important institution for addressing political and human rights issues in Europe. And so the US Secretary of State intends to be there in solidarity with the North Macedonians who have had a difficult year and have done a great job, and also to express solidarity with the other OSCE members."