OREANDA-NEWS. July 2, 2009. The sixth round of international discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia took place in Geneva, attended by delegations from the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, Russia, the US and the Republic of Ossetia and co-chaired by the EU, UN and OSCE. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs/State Secretary Grigory Karasin headed the Russian delegation.

The working group on security continued discussion of the questions of nonuse of force and ensuring rhythmic operation of the joint mechanisms for preventing and responding to incidents in the area of the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-South Ossetian borders. There was accentuated on the Russian, South Ossetian and Abkhaz sides the importance of an early conclusion of legally binding documents on the nonuse of force between Georgia and South Ossetia and between Georgia and Abkhazia. In this connection attention was drawn to the basic principles submitted by Russia during the May round of discussions for such agreements, as also to the analogous draft circulated by South Ossetia’s delegation on July 1.

This problem is aggravated by the winding up of the OSCE and UN field missions in Transcaucasia in view of the unwillingness on the part of Georgia and a number of western countries to recognize the qualitatively new politico-diplomatic situation in the region. Against this background it is important to concentrate on working out mutually acceptable modalities for the functioning of incident prevention mechanisms capable of making a useful contribution to stabilizing the politico-military conditions in the border areas. Agreement was reached to soon hold a consultative meeting for the launch of such a mechanism on the Georgian-Abkhaz border (as is known, on the Georgian-South Ossetian border this kind of mechanism has already started operating).

In the working group on refugees the Russian delegation presented a draft of humanitarian recommendations to alleviate the position of refugees and displaced persons in Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia, underlining the primary need to provide firm security for the start of a refugee return process.

The sixth round has shown that in conditions of the withdrawal of the international UN and OSCE observers the Geneva exchange of views on the issues of stability and security in Transcaucasia is useful. It can produce real results subject to abandonment by participants of politicized approaches based on a desire to ignore the consequences of the tragic events in the region in August 2008.

It was agreed that the next meeting in Geneva on security in Transcaucasia would be held on September 17.