Sergey Lavrov to visit Malta next month, Russian media reports

Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov plans to visit Malta next month to attend a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, according to Russian media.

The trip to Malta, for a meeting of OSCE’s Council of Foreign Ministers scheduled for Dec. 5-6, would be the first time Lavrov has traveled to an EU country since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian daily Vedomosti reported.

While Brussels slapped sanctions on Lavrov over his role in the war, the EU did not impose a travel ban, seeking to leave open a channel of communication with Russia’s top diplomat.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that Lavrov intended to make the trip to Vedomosti, while Malta’s Embassy in Russia said invitations to the Dec. 5-6 meeting “will be sent to all OSCE delegations in due course.”

The last time Lavrov visited an EU country was a trip to Stockholm for an OSCE gathering in December 2021, according to the Russian foreign ministry.

In 2023, Lavrov traveled to North Macedonia for an OSCE ministerial, after Bulgaria gave permission for his plane to cross its airspace en route to Skopje. The move sparked criticism from Kyiv, with several countries including Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania choosing to boycott the meeting over Lavrov’s participation.