"The purpose of today"s visit was to make necessary arrangements for the upcoming Geneva consultations to be held on 17-18 February", said the EU envoy Pierre Morel.
"At today"s meeting we touched upon a wide range of problems related to security and stability, incident preventing and confidence-building, as well as humanitarian issues, such as the problem of the missing, water, electricity and gas supply", said Ambassador Morel.
According to Special Representative of the UN SG in Georgia Jogan Verbeke "each of our visit here prove that the South Ossetian side is well prepared for the talks in terms of concrete questions and proposals. We have had a very fruitful dialogue and we are looking forward to have a productive meeting in Geneva. As to the role of the UN, we are very much satisfied with the viewpoint expressed by Boris Chochiev that the UNHCR does a lot and can still do a lot to improve the situation. We are hoping to soon get back to our discussion of concrete questions on the activities of the UNHCR and the UN as such".
"I would like to stress the constructive atmosphere of today"s conversation as well as the positive perspective identified for the forthcoming Geneva consultations", said the Special Representative of the OSCE CiO Ambassador Christopoulos.
I should stress the importance of these negotiations for the OSCE. These talks might ensure security and stability in the region. As to the issue of the OSCE"s presence in South Ossetia, I have informed the South Ossetian side on the current state of negotiations ongoing in Vienna, as well as in the capitals of the Geneva consultations parties. I would like to emphasize that the Greek Chairmanship is acting as a facilitator to the negotiations between the sides on the OSCE"s presence in the region. We have attentively listened to the opinions of all sides and transmitted concrete proposals by the Greek Chairmanship to the South Ossetia side today with the vision of future cooperation with South Ossetia. We are looking forward to hearing soon the comments on our proposals."
