N' Macedonia ready to "open skies" for FM Lavrov to attend OSCE summit

North Macedonia, a member of NATO, announced on Friday that it would temporarily lift its ban on flights from Russia to allow Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to attend an international conference in the country, provided he accepts the invitation.

As reported by Gazeta.Ru, the temporary lift of the flight ban is in connection with North Macedonia hosting a meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in its capital, Skopje. North Macedonia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the OSCE. Most European countries had imposed flight bans from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

For the Russian delegation to reach landlocked North Macedonia, they would need to fly through the airspace of other NATO or European Union members. These countries, in turn, would also have to grant special permission for such flights to take place.