On 5-6 November, 2024, the Palais des Nations hosted the 62nd 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 and representatives from the EU, UN, and OSCE participated in the meeting. The South Ossetian delegation was led by State Counselor to the President of the Republic of South Ossetia K. K. Kochiev.
The main attention in Working group I was paid to the discussion on running issues of regional security and maintaining stability in territories adjusted to the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia. The South Ossetian delegation called participant’s attention to the ongoing provocations from the Georgian side, to facts of intentional violation of the state border and to the importance of continuing marking the state border line with engineering constructions as a real factor which reduces the number of similar violations. The South Ossetian delegation once again called for the Georgian party to get to joint activities on delimitation and demarcation of the state border between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia in order to strengthen stability and to minimize the number of incidents at the state border.
As for the work on the problem of resuming substantive work on the legally binding document on non-use of force, the destructive position of some participants once again prevented discussion of this agenda point, however, the South Ossetian participants called for continued discussion of this key issue in the GID work. The effectiveness and high practical importance of continuing the work of the IPRM operating at the South Ossetian-Georgian border and the current “hotline” were again noted.
Representatives of South Ossetia have once again drawn attention to the discriminatory visa policy pursued by a number of states in relation to residents of South Ossetia and suggested that the Co-Chairs apply to authorities of the corresponding states to review their approaches and stop politicizing the issue of visas for the citizens.
Having considered a number of factors, delegations of Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia once again proposed to move the GID on Security and Stability in Transcaucasia to other place which would be more appropriate and comfortable for all the participants. However, consensus on this problem was not reached.
During the meeting of Working group II discussions on humanitarian issues were held, related to the search of missing persons, education, ecological security and preservation of cultural heritage.
The South Ossetian delegates urged activating work on clarifying the destiny of missing persons and called for the Georgian party to stop undermining work in the direction and undertake practical steps in order to solve the problem.
Serious attention was once again drawn to gross violations by Georgia of rights of the Ossetians from the Kazbeg region (Tyrsygom), who have been barred of access to their homes and property over the last years by Georgian authorities.
The discussion on the problem of refugees was not held at the round. Resumption of discussions on the issue of refugees will become possible after Georgia stops its attempts to politicize artificially this humanitarian issue.
All the participants of the meeting stressed the importance of the GID and confirmed their commitment to the format. The next round of the discussion is scheduled for March 2025.
Geneva, 7 November 2024