The ninth round of international
discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia is scheduled in
Geneva for January 28. They have been held since October 2008 on the
basis of the Russian and French presidents’ agreements reached after
the tragic events of August 2008 in South Ossetia. Participating in the
Geneva meetings on an equal footing are delegations from the Republic
of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation, the United States, the
Republic of South Ossetia, and also the representatives of the EU, UN
and OSCE. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs/State Secretary Grigory
Karasin will head the Russian delegation.
As before, the
discussions will be organized in two working groups – on security
issues and on humanitarian problems, including refugees and displaced
persons.
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In the first group the Russian side
intends to re-emphasize the urgency of concluding a legally binding
document on the nonuse of force between Georgia, on the one hand, and
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, on the other. With the continued bellicose
rhetoric from Tbilisi, the unceasing calls by the Georgian leadership
for Georgia's territorial integrity to be restored at any cost, and the
buildup of the Georgian armed presence and maneuvers near the Abkhaz
and South Ossetian borders, the provision to Sukhum and Tskhinval of
firm security guarantees becomes even more important.
The
problem of Georgia’s remilitarization, and the restoration of its
offensive military capabilities that potentially could again lead to an
aggravation of the situation in Transcaucasia with unpredictable
consequences for the peoples and countries of the region, needs to be
solved in parallel. All responsible actors in international relations
must understand the perils of a policy of double standards toward
Georgia, especially in regard to the covert supply of modern arms and
materiel to it. The accelerated rearmament of the current adventurous
regime in Tbilisi is fraught with a new wave of tension and the
emergence of new threats to neighboring states, particularly South
Ossetia and Abkhazia.
During the upcoming exchange of views on
the current situation on the Abkhaz-Georgian and South
Ossetian-Georgian borders, due attention will be paid to the state of
work, concerns and ways to address them within the incident prevention
and response mechanisms. A search needs to be continued for a solution
to the problem of detainees and missing persons in the Georgian-South
Ossetian border area, which prevents the normal functioning of the
respective joint mechanism.
Given the transfer of the
co-chairmanship of the OSCE in the Geneva discussions from the Greek
representative to the representative of Kazakhstan and the upcoming
renewal of the UN co-chairmanship, views are expected to be exchanged
on the continuation of help from these organizations to meetings in
Geneva and to the field activities of the incident prevention
mechanisms. It is clear that any proposals on the activities of
international organizations on the territory of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia should be agreed with these countries and should take into
account the new political and legal realities in Transcaucasia since
August 2008.
The panel on humanitarian issues is expected to
continue work on basic definitions in readying the parameters for the
future commencement of the process of the return of refugees and
displaced persons and as regards humanitarian aid to needy segments of
the population in Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia. In this context
it is important to note the negative impact on the solution of concrete
issues of Georgia’s law on occupied territories, which is
discriminatory. That was stated in the expert opinion of the Venice
Commission of the Council of Europe. The Russian side has consistently
advocated in Geneva for the development of a transparent, and
acceptable to all concerned parties, approach to the return of refugees
and displaced persons on the basis of internationally recognized
principles of safety, voluntariness and mutual trust in this process.
Source: UNPO - (Isria)
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