The head of Portuguese diplomacy defended in Skopje on Thursday that peace is “the exclusive responsibility” of Russia, through the withdrawal of the occupied territories in Ukraine, a message he conveyed to his Russian counterpart, in whom he expressed a “lack of conviction” saw.
Portugal’s position was conveyed in an intervention by João Gomes Cravinho at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia, attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. and in which Russia, considered the Portuguese ruler, was “completely isolated, with only the little stick of Belarus”.
“I made it clear, first of all, that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was Russia’s exclusive responsibility, and what Russia has put forward as justification does not make sense, and because it is Russia’s exclusive responsibility, peace was also Russia’s exclusive responsibility . Russia, namely through what is the obvious demand, the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine,” the minister saidin conversation with Lusa, at the end of the first of two days of the OSCE meeting.
At the meeting, the future of the 57-member organization was under discussion, while “there clearly exists today a situation where security and cooperation in Europe have been quite honestly disrupted by Russia’s actions.”
Poland and the three Baltic countries, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, boycotted the meeting in view of Lavrov’s presence, but were represented at ambassadorial level.
When asked if he had found any opening on the side of the Russian ruler, João Gomes Cravinho replied that he had not, but that he had found “some weakness”.
‘Time will help, because this Russia will not remain like this forever, I believe. What I felt was some weakness on the part of [do ministro Lavrov], out of lack of conviction. He is a person with enormous political and diplomatic experience (…) What I saw today was a person with extremely weak arguments and little ability to impose his ideas. This made me think, because in fact the future of Russia cannot proceed through these kinds of arguments, which are completely weak and based on untruths,” said Gomes Cravinho.
The military offensive that Russia launched in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 caused the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II (1939-1945), according to the most recent UN data.
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by most of the international community, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and impose political and economic sanctions on Russia.
Source: DN
