Murat Dzhioev, South Ossetia Foreign Minister and the Plenipotentiary of the President of the Republic of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement, heading South Ossetia delegation at the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in Transcaucasia, hosted a meeting with the Co-Chairs of the Discussions representing the EU, the OSCE and the UN, who arrived to the Republic on March 07 in anticipation of the 39th round of the Discussions.
Full agenda of coming round scheduled for late March, including issues that correspond to the GID, were discussed during the meeting.
The issue of maintaining security of South Ossetia remains the key point of the GID. In this regard the importance of more active work on the legally binding document that would guarantee non-use of force by Georgia against South Ossetia was emphasized.
Due to absence of visible progress in this direction for a rather long period of time, South Ossetian party once again draw attention of the Co-Chairs to the necessity of adopting a joint statement by all participants on commitment to the principle of non-use of force. Such a statement hasn’t been signed yet because of non-constructive position of Georgian party.
Alongside with this South Ossetian party expressed concern of recent NATO activities in Georgia, that is also a continuation of the provocative policy pursued by Georgian authorities and a serious destabilization factor for security in the region.
The parties reiterated the importance of regular fruitful work within the IPRM as well as the “hot line” organized in framework of the mechanism, which allows respond quickly to the arising problems.
Special attention was drawn to humanitarian issues and especially to problems of missing South Ossetia citizens’ search, cultural heritage, human rights execution and eliminating barriers for South Ossetia citizens’ international contacts.
Negative impact of the deliberate policy pursued by Georgian authorities in creating unseemly image of South Ossetia at the international arena, blaming it for human rights violation, that doesn’t correspond to the reality, was noted at the meeting.
The participants noted the importance of further conducting discussions for maintaining security in the region and expressed commitment to effective constructive work during the coming round.
Upon the meeting the Co-Chairs answered questions of IA representatives.
Tskhinval, March 07, 2017