News

On 19 October in Vilnius, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis met with Knut Vollebaek, High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and discussed the situation of national minorities in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Western Balkans, the forthcoming OSCE Summit of Heads of State or Government in Astana and the preparation for Lithuania’s upcoming OSCE chairmanship.

“I highly commend the activities of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities through silent diplomacy in the OSCE area. I look forward to a constructive bilateral cooperation with the High Commissioner, when Lithuania assumes the OSCE chairmanship on 1 January,” Foreign Minister A.Ažubalis said.

The OSCE High Commissioner’s task is to provide early warning and expeditious action ahead of time in regard to tensions involving national minority issues and to prevent them from developing by applying preventive diplomatic measures within the OSCE area.

The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), the OSCE’ forerunner, decided to endorse the High Commissioner’s mandate in 1992. K.Vollebaek was appointed to the post of High Commissioner on National Minorities in 2007. His office is in the Hague. K.Vollebaek was the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE in 1999.

Lithuania will hold the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2011. Lithuania’s chairmanship intends to focus on the implementation of the decisions that will be made during the 2010 OSCE Summit of Heads of State or Government in Astana on 1-2 December. Lithuania’s chairmanship also intends to promote the fulfillment of the commitments in the political and military, economic and environmental, and human dimensions that are set out in the OSCE documents, as well as to continue looking for solutions to protracted conflicts and to promote regional cooperation.