4-5 April, 2024 saw the 60th round of the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in Transcaucasia, established in accordance with Medvedev – Sarkozy agreements, dated August 12, 2008 and September 8, 2008. Delegations from the Republic of South Ossetia, the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation, the USA as well asrepresentatives of the EU, the UN, and the OSCE participated in the meeting. The South Ossetian delegation was led by State Counselor to the President K. K. Kochiev.
The participants of the meeting assessed general security and stability situation at the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia as relatively stable.
The South Ossetian delegation stressed the need of continuing denotation of the state border line between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia and construction of corresponding engineering facilities, and once again called for the Georgian party to start joint activities on delimitation and demarcation of the state border between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia.
The participants of the Discussions acknowledged the controversial approaches of the parties to elaboration of the document on non-use of force, but the South Ossetian delegates called for continuing work in this key area of the GID.
Representatives of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Russiaexpressed concern about the increased NATO activities on the territory of Georgia, military training build up and activatedarrangements aimed at Georgian integration into the North Atlantic Alliance.
The South Ossetian representatives marked the importance of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism in the context of maintaining stable and predictable situation on the ground.
A thorough discussion was held on humanitarian issues, prioritizing the destiny of missing citizens of South Ossetia. It was emphasized that the speediest solution of the issue would have a positive impact on the atmosphere of the Geneva discussions.
Attention was once again drawn to gross violations by Georgia of the rights of the Ossetians, natives of the Kazbeg region (Tyrsygom), who have been barred of access to their ancestral villages by Georgian authorities over the last years.
The South Ossetian participants once again raised the issue of returning to South Ossetia the unique Byzantine icon-tryptich, which had been stolen from the National Museum of the Republic of South Ossetia and later appropriated by Georgia.
The parties exchanged opinion on a number of other humanitarian issues.
The problem of refugees was not discussed at the round. Resumption of discussions on this issue will become possible after Georgia gives up the attempts to the inacceptablepolitization of the problem.
The next round of the discussion is scheduled for June 2024.
April 6, 2024