Russia and Georgia concluded their 14th round of talks on Thursday, without reaching agreement on security and other issues of mutual concern.
According to the press communique delivered by the co-chairs of the talks, discussions were carried out by two separate working groups -- one on "a review of the security situation on the ground " and the other on "humanitarian issues." None of the working groups produced concrete agreement.
In a press conference following the talks, Georgia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Bokeria regarded the round as " quite disappointing."
He blamed Russia for not only refusing to pledge non-use of force against Georgia, but also conducted "further militarization" in the region by deploying additional weapon systems.
Responding to Bokeria's remarks, a Russian representative at the scene attributed the "broken" dialogues to Georgia's own decision to "commit aggression against Ossetia in August, 2008."
"We have not used force on our initiative", but rather "used it only to turn back aggression," said the Russian representative, blaming Georgia for not recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia and "lack of flexibility" in the dialogues.
The next round of talks between Russia and Georgia will be held on March 4, 2011. The last round of their internationally-mediated talks, held in Oct. 14, 2010, also failed to produce positive results on key security issues.
EU Special Representative Pierre Morel, one of the co-chairs of the talks, regarded the talks as "difficult session," with only " modest step forward" on several minor issues, such as the imminent removal of the Russian checkpoint in Perevi.
Dispute between Moscow and Tbilisi escalated after Georgia detained six people on Dec. 3 suspected of getting involved in the bombing attacks this autumn at Tbilisi.
Georgia's Interior Ministry accused an Abkhazia-based Russian military officer as the handler of the bombers. Georgia has also requested Russia to detain the military officer, identified as major Yevgeny Borisov, for interrogation. Moscow refuted the allegation, regarding it as "a show" which "could only cause a smile by clear-headed people," and a "Saakashvili fiction" which was "especially provocative."
On Dec. 7, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili made a pledge on non-use of force in addressing regional issues, at the OSCE summit in Kazakhstan capital Astana, ahead of the 14th round of Geneva talks. Without concessions over the key concerns of Russia, the pledge seemed to be no more than a unilateral action.
The Geneva Talks, which were launched in the wake of the August 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia, are held in the presence of co-organizers -- the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The Georgian and Russian negotiators have not agreed with each other on any major issues and the Georgians will not agree to the participation in the talks by the representatives from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which have proclaimed independence.
The Geneva Talks was one of the six points agreed on by the Russian and French presidents during a September 2008 meeting to broker a cease-fire between Russia and Georgia.
The sixth and final point calls for internationally mediated talks on security guarantees for Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian-French agreement also called for internationally mediated discussions focusing on security and stability in the South Caucasus region and made provisions for discussions of further issues with mutual Russian and Georgian consent.
Source: Xinhua
