The Co-Chairs of the GID on Security and Stability in Transcaucasia have notified the South Ossetian party about their decision to postpone the coming 57th round of the Discussion that had been scheduled for February until April. Against the existing practice, the decision was undertaken by the Co-Chairs unilaterally, without consultations with the participants.
We would like to recall that the message with the decision to fix the date of the 57th round of the GID for February 21-22, 2023 was circulated after the Co-Chairs had refused to conduct the meeting in December 2022. At the same time, the 56th round of the Discussions, held in truncated version in October, was the only meeting held in 2022.
The Geneva International Discussions in Transcaucasia is the most important international platform where issues related to regional security are discussed and the unique format for direct dialogue between South Ossetia and Georgia. All the participants have marked multiple times that the GID is a key element for maintaining peace and stability in the existing architecture of regional security.
Repeated postponements of one after another GID rounds slow down the Geneva process and lead to degradation of the format that results in lack of regional security.
Neither incident prevention and response mechanisms, operating under the GID, nor visits of the Co-Chairs to the capitals of participating states, where they meet with delegations to discuss the agenda and prepare for forthcoming rounds, can substitute adequately full-fledged meetings of the participants.
In accordance with another change of the earlier agreed date of the 57th round of the Geneva discussions, the South Ossetian party made a decision to postpone the reception of the Co-Chairs in Tskhinval, scheduled for February 7, for a corresponding period.
Tskhinval, February 1, 2023