WARSAW, November 19. /TASS/. The Polish authorities have refused to allow a Russian delegation to enter its territory to participate in the 29th annual meeting of foreign ministers from member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Agence France-Presse reported on Friday.
Poland holds the organization’s rotating presidency this year. Earlier, the Polish presidency of the OSCE said it had sent invitations to all delegations to attend the foreign ministers’ meeting, to be held in the central Polish city of Lodz this year.
However, Polish foreign ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina answered ‘yes’ to a direct question from a reporter about whether the Polish authorities had barred the Russian delegation from traveling to Poland.
On November 16, it was reported that the Polish Foreign Ministry denied visas to Russian lawmakers, who were to participate in the fall session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, scheduled to be held in Warsaw from November 24-26.
This year’s meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the 57 OSCE participating states will be held at the invitation of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Poland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau on December 1 and 2.
The Ministerial Council is the central decision-making and governing body of the OSCE. "The annual meeting is an opportunity for the Foreign Ministers to review and assess the security situation in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area, as well as the organization's work in all its fields of activity," the Polish presidency said in a statement.