The international community is watching his trip to the old continent for a possible meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Blinken, whose attention has been focused for more than a month on the war between Israel and Hamas and the meeting between the presidents of the United States and China, will first attend a meeting of diplomatic chiefs of NATO members in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Later, he is expected to leave for North Macedonia, where a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be held in the second half of this week.
“We hope he will engage in good discussions with our colleagues in the OSCE about support for Ukraine,” US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien told reporters.
He indicated that A. Blinken’s agenda could still change, and did not comment on whether the head of US diplomacy would consider meeting with S. Lavrov. The latter asked to be allowed to attend the annual meeting of the OSCE, as Russia is a member of this international organization.
Lavrov said on Monday that North Macedonia, which has joined Western sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, would allow him to participate, but he still needed permission to cross the airspace of EU-owned Bulgaria.
“Bulgaria has reportedly promised Macedonia to open its airspace. If that happens, we will be there,” Russian state news agency TASS quoted S. Lavrov as saying.
Poland, which hosted the OSCE meeting last year, did not allow the Russian minister to participate in it, which provoked an angry reaction from Moscow.
US officials have not engaged in high-level contacts with the Russians since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, although Mr. Blinken had a brief encounter with Mr. Lavrov during the G-20 meeting in India in March.
In Brussels, Blinken will speak about US support for Ukraine in the coming months as Kyiv continues its counteroffensive while the international community’s attention largely shifts to the Middle East.
US President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to convince Republicans to approve another aid package for Ukraine, which he has tied to aid to Israel and Taiwan.
According to Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Biden’s administration is confident about the support of Congress for Ukraine, and he described the assistance to Ukraine as a coalition effort.
“I think it’s important for our partners to hear that we will continue to meet our commitments, even as our Congress debates the next steps we intend to take,” Mr. O’Brien said.
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2024-08-30 23:22:29
