On June 20, at a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko has outlined the main tasks on Ukraine’s agenda for our country’s OSCE Chairmanship in 2013.

The Minister said that during its OSCE Chairmanship Ukraine would act on behalf and in the interests of all the OSCE participating States and the Organization as a whole, and urged the participating States to a constructive dialogue to address urgent problems of European security.

Minister Gryshchenko stressed that Ukraine would make every effort to strengthen the role of the OSCE in developing the idea of ​​"OSCE security community," without division lines, conflicts, spheres of influence, or unequal security zones.

Speaking about Ukraine’s approaches to key issues on the OSCE agenda during its Chairmanship, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko stressed our country’s ambition to give a new impetus to settling protracted conflicts in the OSCE area, including the Transnistrian conflict, as well as to promote the Organization’s effectiveness in early prevention of conflicts, and responding to new challenges and threats.

In the military-political sphere the Ukrainian Chairmanship would support efforts to restore effective conventional arms control in Europe, non-proliferation, and confidence building measures, Minister Gryshchenko said.

In the area of economic development and environment protection Ukraine would initiate and promote the discussion of energy industry’s influence on the environment, he said.

The Minister emphasized Ukrainian Chairmanship’s special attention to a broad range of humanitarian issues on the OSCE agenda, such as freedom of speech, promoting tolerance and non-discrimination, gender equality, combating human trafficking. According to him, special importance in this area would be attached to promoting NGOs participation in realizing the objectives of the OSCE.

The approaches to further development of the OSCE, its role and place in the process of strengthening European security voiced by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine were acclaimed by the participating States. In particular, United States Representative to the OSCE Ian Kelly welcomed Ukraine's determination during its Chairmanship to pay special attention to the humanitarian dimension of the OSCE. Ukraine’s partners from the Russian Federation, the European Union, and other OSCE participating States also stressed their support to the priorities on Ukrainian Chairmanship agenda.