At the next round of Geneva discussions, the South Ossetian delegation stated the need to significantly intensify еру work to clarify the fate of the missing and called on the Georgian party to take practical steps to solve this problem. This was reported by the press service of the South Ossetian Foreign Ministry.
On June 25-26, 2024, the 61st round of International Discussions on Security and Stability in Transcaucasia, held in accordance with the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreements of August 12 and September 8, 2008, took place in Geneva.
The meeting was attended by delegations from South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation, the United States, co-chaired by the EU, UN and OSCE. The South Ossetian delegation was headed by State Advisor to President Konstantin Kochiev.
The Foreign Ministry has emphasized that a detailed conversation on humanitarian issues took place at the meeting, in which priority attention was paid to the fate of the missing citizens of South Ossetia.
The press service has added, that the most serious attention was again paid to Georgia's ongoing gross violations of the rights of the Ossetians - natives of the Kazbegi region (Tyrsygom), who have been denied the access to their ancestral places by the Georgian authorities for many years.
“In connection with the latest politicized resolution on the refugee problem adopted by the UN General Assembly behind the backs of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the South Ossetian and Abkhaz participants in a joint statement emphasized the destructive nature of this Georgian initiative, which deprives any meaning of discussing the problem of refugees and displaced persons at the Geneva platform,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted.
The participants also noted the commitment of all parties to continue working in the format of the Geneva discussions.
The security situation on the state border between South Ossetia and Georgia was assessed as relatively stable.
“During the discussion, a positive assessment was given of the activities of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) as the important factor in ensuring stability and security in the South Ossetian-Georgian border area. The effective work of the communication hotline within the framework of the IPRM ,” the Ministry stressed.
South Ossetian and Russian representatives once again called on the Georgian party to launch the joint work on the delimitation and subsequent demarcation of the state border between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia, as the important factor in reducing the risk of border incidents and destabilization.
The South Ossetian, Abkhaz and Russian participants have stated that effective security requires Georgia to sign a legally binding document guaranteeing the non-use of force against South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The next meeting of the International Geneva Discussions is scheduled to be held at the end of 2024.
