As OSCE chair Lithuania to continue to support Astana Declaration goals, Audronius Ažubalis
Three months ago leaders of 56 participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe convened for the first OSCE Summit in Astana in 11 years and adopted the Astana Commemorative Declaration to once again prove adherence to the fundamental principles of the Organization on the highest level. The Astana Jubilee Declaration is a turning point of the Kazakhstan's OSCE chairmanship in 2010 and of the Summit. It charts a clear course to solve many challenges to Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security. As the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office I would like to congratulate Kazakhstan on successful presidency in 2010 and would like to assure that Lithuania as the OSCE chair will promote the ideas and suggestions proposed in Astana, said Ažubalis.
The Lithuanian presidency announces its intentions to keep cooperation with all the participating states to realize the vision of all-encompassing, collective and unshared security community throughout OSCE area, relying on the countries' fulfillment of their commitments in the OSCE politico-military, economic and environmental and human dimensions.
Having faced serious security challenges such as interethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan and threats posed by Afghanistan's lasting instability, Kazakhstan's chairmanship raised significantly public awareness of the Eurasian dimension of the OSCE. Undoubtedly, it is one of the merits of Kazakhstan's OSCE presidency. As before, Lithuania intends to pay attention to the issues of the Eurasian security in 2011.
We are going to focus on promotion and protection of human rights, basic freedoms, democracy and supremacy of law that lay the foundation for the OSCE comprehensive security concept. Relying on determination of all the parties concerned demonstrated in Astana our chairmanship is to focus on resolving existing conflicts and achieving concrete progress in addressing transnational threats and safeguarding fundamental freedoms, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office stated.
As the member of the OSCE Troika, Kazakhstan keeps on playing an important role in the OSCE work. In particular, Kazakhstan will chair the OSCE Security Cooperation Forum which addresses the military aspects of security.
I hailed the recent decision of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to hold early presidential elections and welcome the invitation to monitor the elections. Conduct of regular elections on a competitive basis is one of the key commitments of the OSCE. I hope we will continue a dialogue on further fulfillment of commitments, said Ažubalis.
The programme of the forthcoming visit to Kazakhstan includes meetings with Kazakhstan's high-level officials, as well as representatives of political parties and civil society in Astana and Almaty. They will discuss OSCE co-operation in Kazakhstan as well as the follow-up process to the Astana Commemorative Declaration, signed by the OSCE Heads of State and Government at the OSCE.