News

At the 11th meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council in Maastricht, on December 1-2, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis stressed the importance for international organisations to fight new challenges and threats by means of coordinated action. Minister Valionis raised the problem of settlement of the prolonged conflicts in Moldova and Georgia, and stated that defaulting the commitments undertaken during the OSCE Summit of 1999 in Istanbul negatively affected the social and economic development of these countries. The Minister urged to seek settlement of these conflicts by joint efforts of the international community. The Chief of Lithuanian Diplomacy drew attention to the deteriorating situation with human rights in the neighbouring Belarus, restrictions on the democratic institutions and press of this country. Minister Valionis stressed that over the last years the Belarussian policy had led towards the country’s self-imposed isolation, which is against the interests of Lithuania and other Western countries. Over the two-day meeting of ministers from 55 OSCE member states, a new OSCE Strategy to Address Threats to Stability and Security in the 21st century was put on approval by a joint ministerial declaration. The basic tasks of the Organisation activities will remain early warning, conflict prevention and post-conflict rehabilitation, attention to human rights and democratic processes within the whole OSCE area. The Organisation intends to assign a particular role to the currently topical issues of terrorism prevention and fight against human trafficking. Other most important issues on the agenda were Russia’s previous obligations concerning withdrawal of its troops and removal of arms from Moldova and Georgia. OSCE is ready to become actively involved in the stabilisation process in Georgia, it has already started preparing for organising and monitoring the elections to be held on January 4. The meeting also addresses the settlement of the Trans-Dniester conflict and implementation of the obligations undertaken at the OSCE Istanbul Summit of 1999 and the active role of the international community in these processes.