KIEV, January 1 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s priority for its time as chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be resolving long-running conflicts, Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara said on Tuesday.

“During its chairmanship of the OSCE in 2013, Ukraine will make every effort to resolve long-running conflicts, strengthen conventional arms control, fight people trafficking, decrease the impact of energy on the environment, and protect human rights and freedoms,” Ukraine's Foreign Ministry cite Kozhara as saying.

Ukraine takes over from Ireland in the position from Tuesday, January 1, and is slated to officially unveil its priorities at the OSCE meeting in Vienna on January 17.

The OSCE says it is the world’s largest regional security organization, bringing together 57 countries from across North America, Europe and Central Asia.

In November 2012, the OSCE said the Belarusian parliamentary elections were not free, fair or democratic. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko responded by saying that the OSCE is irrelevant. “Today the OSCE does nothing to ensure security while its cooperation is aimed at division, at discord.”