On 30 March, the 10th round of the international discussions on security and stability in South Caucasus taking place within the frames of the multilateral agreements of 12 August and 8 September 2008 was held in Palace of Nations, Geneva. Delegations of the Republic of Abkhazia, European Union, Russian Federation, United States of America and Republic of South Ossetia equally participate in the Geneva Discussions.
Within the framework of the meeting, sessions in two working groups were held – on issues related to security and humanitarian problems. The discussion in Working Group dealing with security issues focused on the future agreements on non-use of force. The South Ossetian and Abkhaz sides expressed their concern about the delayed elaboration of the non-use of force paper. The Russian delegation presented a compromise draft paper, which was accepted by the South Ossetian and Abkhaz sides as the basic one for the future agreements.
The Working Group on humanitarian issues, the sides exchanged their viewpoints on issues related to refugees and other categories of displaced population.
The results of the meeting, in accordance with the practice set within the Geneva process, Co-Chairs' Press Communiqué was circulated. Unfortunately, the wording of the Communiqué, as it already happened before, does not fully reflect the content of the discussions, nor does it mirror the positions of the sides creating some distorted perception of the process and the participants' approaches. Abkhazian and Ossetian sides hope that in the future, reoccurrence of such attitudes of the Co-Chairs to their role will be excluded and their final communiqués will more precisely reflect the essence and mood of the discussions. It was suggested that the next round of discussions would take place on 7 June 2010.
Geneva, 30 March 2010
