News

VILNIUS, 5 January 2011 – At the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 4 January, the journalist community of Lithuania was acquainted with the priorities and the main team members of Lithuania’s Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).   At the meeting with journalists, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Audronius Ažubalis stressed that Lithuania’s diplomacy was facing a major challenge. He discussed the directions, which Lithuania’s Chairmanship would follow. According to the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, they include a special focus on the role of an impartial mediator, fairness and transparency, active solution of problematic issues and the promotion of more intensive regional cooperation.

The settlement of protracted conflicts, fight against transnational threats, freedom of the media and journalists’ safety, promotion of tolerance through education and aim to include energy security on the OSCE permanent agenda are among the priorities of Lithuania’s Chairmanship.

According to A.Ažubalis, the OSCE Summit of Heads of States and Governments on 1-2 December in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, provided a solid basis for cooperation and, simultaneously, obliged the Chairmanship to continue drawing the security community’s action plan.

The Minister presented the main team members of the Chairmanship: Director of the OSCE Chairmanship Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Rytis Paulauskas, OSCE Special Representative for Protracted Conflicts Giedrius Čekuolis and Ambassador for the OSCE Human Dimension Alfonsas Eidintas.

R.Paulauskas acquainted Lithuanian journalists with the organization’s structure, activities and announced that the Lithuanian Chairmanship’s priorities would be outlined to the 56 OSCE participating States during the events on 12-13 January in Vienna.

According to G.Čekuolis, the Lithuanian Chairmanship will not be revolutionary, because the OSCE is an organization, where the achieved progress is measured in millimeters, but it has “the value of gold.” According to him, the Chairmanship’s goal when aiming to make progress in protracted conflicts will be to prompt the political will of the participating States making use of the existing mechanisms.

According to A.Eidintas, the main values of Lithuania’s Chairmanship will be democracy and stability.

Lithuania took over the Chairmanship of the OSCE on 1 January. In 2010, the organization was chaired by Kazakhstan.