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VILNIUS, Jan 01, BNS - Taking over the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Lithuania will try to stick to a moderate tone necessary for this status, Audronius Azubalis, Lithuania's minister of foreign affairs, has said in an interview to BNS.

The minister expressed concern over possible pressure related to the evaluation of international affairs in Lithuania during the country's OSCE chairmanship.

"I see threats that during Lithuania's chairmanship, when we'll have to retain the chairmanship's tone, some difficulties might arise, including internal pressure to change the chairmanship's tone to an ordinary participant's tone. I see a huge challenge for myself here, as people will start saying why we don't condemn this or that, or we don't use strict tone or don't say this or that," Azubalis said.

The minister underlined that Lithuania will have to keep "subtle boundaries" during the chairmanship of the organization uniting 56 countries.

"Now I say pretty calmly that the Belarus election was not democratic, but in a crisis situation, as the chairman, I might have to use a stricter tone. I won't be able to say that X is guilty, instead of Y," Azubalis said.

Talking about the Lithuanian OSCE Chairmanship's priorities, the minister mentioned three directions: solving frozen conflicts, economic relations and energy security and support for democracy. Azubalis noted that there are states among 56 OSCE members that don't like certain issues raised by Lithuania.

"I don't want to talk about what some countries don't like, but that's the way it is. But if tried to adapt our chairmanship priorities to every state's wishes, we couldn't call it chairmanship. In that case we wouldn't have any priorities," the Lithuanian foreign affairs minister said.

In Azubalis' opinion, it was very important to have a realistic view on our opportunities during the preparation for the chairmanship. Vilnius will try to encourage solving frozen conflicts, including those in Georgia, the minister said.

"As a member of the European Union and NATO, we will try to invoke not only our neighbors, e. g. the Russians, but also the EU. We will try to invoke separate EU member states, e. g. Germany, which had initiated certain processes in Transnistria. (...) If we talk about Georgia, we then talk about attempts to restore the OSCE's presence in the whole territory of Georgia," the head of Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Azubalis admitted that limited financial resources will not allow Lithuania to act broadly and will force to set priorities. The main focus will be given to those issues where agreement of all members is achievable.

"The search for consensus has been underway for about a year - our ambassadors and diplomats are traveling and trying to agree with countries. (...) I believe it is a good idea to work with countries in Central Asia, Western partners and Russia on separate instruments to cut drugs smuggling because all agree on this," said the Lithuanian diplomacy chief.

Azubalis believes Lithuania's credibility, the country's ability to chair and mediate on the international arena will be tested. Lithuania is scheduled to take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2013.

"If we're lucky, we should acquire a status of a country that can be relied on and trusted with major international tasks," Azubalis added.

Nevertheless, the minister acknowledged that Lithuania's situation is difficult as only 8.9 million litas (EUR 2.58 mln) had been allocated for the chairmanship, compared to over 225 million litas spent by the previous Kazakhstan's Chairmanship.

"We are in a situation when we will have to cope with a minimum budget and attempt to do an impossible. The quality of chairmanship probably does not depend on the money spent but it is a big challenge. We probably won't have large events, concerts or expensive souvenirs but we may try to have top-quality discussions," Azubalis added.

The minister will pay 17 regional visits during Lithuania's OSCE Chairmanship, and a meeting of foreign ministers in Vilnius in December, 2011, will be the major event during the chairmanship. The biggest portion of the budget will be spent on the meeting.

Touching upon OSCE place on the international arena, the Lithuanian foreign minister agreed there were different opinions, stressing he thought the organization was a forum that provided a possibility for discussions for countries of a different level of political, social and economic development.

"As members of the European Union and NATO, it seems to us that everything that we decide is clear. However, some OSCE members are not members of these organizations and OSCE, in addition to the United Nations, is probably the second organization where they can talk, discuss and adopt documents. (...) It is vital to keep the organization this way only due to its contribution to democratic development. The significance of organization is not as small as some may think," Azubalis added.

He recalled that the resolution, which was adopted during the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Vilnius to censure crimes of Nazism and Stalinism, triggered "an explosion within the organization" and did not leave even the larger members indifferent.