TA'QALI, Malta, Dec 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers attended an OSCE summit in Malta on Thursday, with Sergei Lavrov making his first visit to an EU member since his country's 2022 invasion of its neighbour.

Neither the Russian diplomat or his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Sybiga, commented as they arrived for the meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which was also attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

But Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, an ally of Ukraine, said he personally would not sit at a table with Lavrov.

"Mr Lavrov is coming here to lie about (the) Russian invasion and what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And I'm not going to listen to those lies," he said.

Lavrov, who has been sanctioned by the European Union, had not visited an EU country since a December 2021 trip to Stockholm, again for an OSCE meeting, Russian media reported.

During the opening plenary session, he sat between the representatives of San Marino and Romania, with his Ukranian counterpart sitting on the same side of the table about a dozen seats away.

The OSCE was founded in 1975 to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War, and now counts 57 members from Turkey to Mongolia, including Britain and Canada as well as the United States.

It helps its members coordinate issues such as human rights and arms control, but Moscow has increasingly accused the group of turning away from its founding principles.

At the last ministerial summit a year ago in North Macedonia, Lavrov accused the OSCE of becoming an "appendage" of NATO and the EU.

Summit host Ian Borg, Malta's foreign minister, opened proceedings with a call for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.

"The recent escalation and attacks must stop immediately to pave the way for a diplomatic process, one that leads to a comprehensive just and lasting peace," Borg said.

Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the organisation, and boycotted the Skopje summit over Lavrov's attendance.

The summit this year in Ta'Qali, near Valetta, comes at a delicate time for Ukraine.

US president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to press for a quick deal to end the war, leaving Kyiv scrambling to obtain security guarantees from Western allies and supplies of key weaponry before the January inauguration.

- 'Channels of communication' -

In 2022, OSCE host Poland refused to let Lavrov attend their summit, and Sikorski has questioned why Moscow was still allowed to be part of the organisation.

A spokesman for Malta told AFP on Wednesday that while he faces an EU asset freeze, there was no travel ban on Lavrov, and he was invited to "keep some channels of communication open".

Russia's foreign ministry said Lavrov would hold a series of bilateral meetings in Malta, without specifying with whom.

Blinken, in Malta after paying his last visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, was not due to meet Lavrov. They last had a significant meeting in March 2023, at the G20 in Delhi.

- 'Security and freedom' -

Lavrov is set to use this week's event to lambast the organisation's "institutional crisis", Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday.

She said a number of Western countries were "using this platform for their own interests", arguing that the body had been "Ukrainianised".

But German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the OECD "stands for security and freedom and we will defend it".

The OSCE has been paralysed since the Ukraine invasion, as Russia has vetoed several major decisions, which require consensus.

The posts of secretary general and three other top officials have been vacant since September because of a lack of agreement over their successors.

Outgoing Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid, from Germany, was appointed in December 2020 for a three-year term, which was later extended until September.

Ambassadors have reached agreement on Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu as her successor, a diplomatic source told AFP, but the decision must be approved by ministers.

The ministers in Malta will also be seeking to agree which country will chair the OSCE in 2026 and 2027.

Russia had blocked NATO member Estonia from holding the chairmanship this year. Finland, which joined NATO last year, is up for the post in 2025.

The OSCE sends observers to conflicts as well as elections around the world. It also runs programmes that aim to combat human trafficking and ensure media freedom.

But its efforts have been hampered by an inability to agree a budget since 2021.