New steps towards Georgia's integration into NATO and the creation of new Alliance infrastructure facilities in Georgia are of concern in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. This is stated in a message to the media of the South Ossetian delegation at the Geneva discussions.
As noted by representatives of the South Ossetian delegation, against the backdrop of Georgia's persistent refusal to commit itself to the non-use of force, the continuing rapprochement between Tbilisi and NATO is of particular concern.
"Representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia expressed justified concern about the situation directly affecting the preservation of stability and security in the region in connection with new steps to integrate Georgia into NATO and the creation of new infrastructure facilities of the military Alliance in the territory of Georgia. Of particular concern is the continuing rapprochement between Georgia and NATO against the backdrop of Georgia's persistent unwillingness to commit itself to the non-use of force against neighboring countries - the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia," - the report says.
The Presidential Envoy for post-conflict settlement has noted that the issue of guaranteeing security and non-use of force between Georgia and South Ossetia, Georgia and Abkhazia remains the main topic of discussion in the first working group of the Geneva discussions. The South Ossetian representatives have proposed to adopt at this round a joint statement of the participants in the discussions on adherence to the principle of non-use of force as an interim document, the work on the coordination of the text of which was almost completed in December 2017.
In Tskhinval it is believed that such a document would allow the positions of all participants in the discussions to be fixed and to begin fulfilling the main task of the Geneva discussions - the elaboration of bilateral interstate agreements on the non-use of force in the context of the common security system in Transcaucasia.
However, as South Ossetian diplomats noted, it was again not possible to complete the work on the document because of the non-constructive approach of other participants in the discussions, in particular, the Georgian and American delegations.
The South Ossetian delegation considered the position of the representatives of Georgia and the United States as an unacceptable attempt to revise the format of the Geneva discussions and withdraw the representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from their framework.
It should be reminded that on June 19-20, 2018 in Geneva took place the 44th round of the International Security Discussions in Transcaucasia. It was attended by the delegations of the Republic of South Ossetia, the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation, the United States, as well as EU, the UN and the OSCE representatives. The South Ossetian delegation was headed by the Presidential Envoy for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev.
