Russia Insists on Georgia's Peace Pacts with Abkhazia, S Ossetia
November 12, 2009
ITAR-TASS
MOSCOW - Russia insists on the signing of legally binding agreements on the non-use of force between Georgia, on the one hand, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia, on the other, the Russian Foreign Ministry said after the eighth round of the Geneva consultations on security and stability in the Caucasus, held on November 11.
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin led the Russian delegation.
"The discussion in the working group on security revolved around specific issues of maintaining stability in the region with the emphasis on the non-use of force," the Foreign Ministry said. "Russia noted the pressing need for signing a legally binding agreement on the non-use of force between Abkhazia and Georgia and between Georgia and South Ossetia."
"All participants noted with satisfaction the regular meetings within the framework of joint mechanisms for the prevention of and response to incidents on the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-South Ossetian borders and their positive influence on the relations between the parties concerned," the Foreign Ministry said. "At the initiative of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian sides there was a discussion of the Heidi Tagliavini commission on the conflict of August 2008. It was stressed that central to the report was the conclusion regarding those responsible for the aggression against South Ossetia.
The Abkhazian, Russian and South Ossetian delegates continued discussing the theme of assistance to the Georgian, Ossetian and Abkhazian refugees, who have had to flee their homes during the whole period of armed confrontation, starting from 1989, and expressed the readiness for joint search for ways of improving the humanitarian situation in the region.
"The discussion held by the two working groups - on security and on humanitarian affairs - showed that Georgia, instead of constructive work, prefers to go ahead with politicized rhetoric and the denial of the realities that emerged in the wake of its aggression against South Ossetia," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The next meeting in Geneva has been scheduled for January 28, 2010.
