OSCE meeting causes rift over whether to share stage with Russia's Lavrov

FILE PHOTO: The OSCE sign is seen outside Hofburg Palace as a Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) takes place in Vienna, Austria, February 23, 2023. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

BRUSSELS/VIENNA (Reuters) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's annual foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday has split member states, with Baltic nations and Ukraine refusing to attend over the presence of Russia's Sergei Lavrov and urging others to as well.

The OSCE is the successor to an organisation set up during the Cold War as a place for Soviet and Western powers to engage, but is now largely paralysed as Russia keeps using what is effectively a veto each country has at the security and rights body. Field missions in the Balkans and Central Asia continue.