Representatives of the delegation of South Ossetia agreed to hold a meeting of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism next week.
Georgia’s hostile rhetoric on the situation around Abkhazia and South Ossetia has not changed after the presidential elections, told RIA Novosti Secretary of State and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin following a regular round of the Geneva discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia.
“In Georgia were held presidential elections. We had hopes that the hostile rhetoric of Tbilisi would subside after them. Frankly speaking these hopes were not entirely fulfilled. The new Georgian representative, Deputy Foreign Minister Lasha Darsalia, still stands on the principles of non-recognition of the republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia's accusations of occupation and, allegedly, non-fulfillment of obligations under the 2008 agreements, "he said.
Karasin has noted that the delegations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia "had to remind" Tbilisi of the changes that had occurred in the young republics over 10 years, in particular, their socio-economic status and the implementation of various projects. Representatives of Russia also clarified their position again, described the aggression launched by Mikhail Saakashvili in 2008, spoke about the role of Moscow in repelling this aggression, current relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, agreements on military bases and border divisions.
“Opinions diverged here again. And because of this controversy, the participants’ statement on the non-use of force was not accepted again. The new version of the document proposed by the Abkhaz representatives will be considered at a new meeting of Geneva discussions in early March of 2019,” the Deputy Foreign Minister added.
He has stressed that despite this, all participants in the current round of discussions, with the exception of Georgia, agreed that the situation in the region is relatively stable, and there were no large-scale incidents in the border area with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In addition, representatives of the delegation of South Ossetia agreed to hold a meeting of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism, which will be held next week. At the same time, a similar mechanism between Abkhazia and Georgia continues to be inactive due to Tbilisi’s intransigent position on the Otkhozoria-Tatunashvili case.
Russian representatives also spoke about the threat to stability and security in the region, which is associated with the increased activity of the United States and NATO.
“First of all, it is about modernizing the military airfield of Vaziani, preparing large-scale NATO exercises in mid-2019 with the participation of units of almost 30 countries. In addition, Georgia has become a dangerous strategic link of the military transit through the Caspian Sea and Central Asia to Afghanistan. We have said this directly, including at a separate meeting with the Americans, "added Karasin.
