Representatives of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Russia expressed concern about the growing NATO presence on the Georgian territory, the increase in military training activities and the intensification of efforts to integrate Georgia into the North Atlantic Military Alliance.
Another round of international security discussions took place in Geneva on April 4-5.
“During the discussion, the South Ossetian party noted the importance of the joint incident prevention and response mechanism (IPRM) for maintaining a stable and predictable situation,” the press service of the office of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy of the Republic of South Ossetia for post-conflict resolution has noted.
The South Ossetian delegation emphasized the need to continue designating the boundaries of the South Ossetian-Georgian state border and installing appropriate engineering structures on this line, and again called on the Georgian party to work together on delimitation and demarcation of the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia.
Participants in the discussions noted the conflicting approaches of the parties to the development of a document on the non-use of force, but the South Ossetian participants called for continued work in this direction, which is the key for the purposes of the Geneva format.
A detailed conversation on humanitarian issues has also taken place, during which priority attention was paid to the fate of the missing citizens of South Ossetia. It was noted that the early resolution of this issue would have a positive impact on the atmosphere of the Geneva discussions.
Once again, the most serious attention was paid to Georgia's gross violations of the rights of Ossetians - natives of the Kazbegi region (Tyrsygom), whom the Georgian authorities have been denying the access to their ancestral settlements for several years.
South Ossetian participants again raised the issue of returning to South Ossetia a unique Byzantine triptych icon stolen from the National Museum of the Republic of South Ossetia and appropriated by Georgia.
“There was also an exchange of views on a number of other humanitarian issues. There was no discussion on the refugee problem at the completed round. Resumption of discussions on refugees will become possible if Georgia stops attempts at unacceptable politicization of this problem,” the press service has emphasized.
Delegations from South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Russia, the USA, as well as representatives of the EU, UN and OSCE took part in the discussions. The South Ossetian delegation was headed by State Advisor to the President Konstantin Kochiev.
The next meeting of the Geneva Discussions is scheduled to take place in June 2024.
