OSCE Chairman Meets Georgian Leadership

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos is holding talks with the Georgian leadership on September 4.

Moratinos, who arrived in Tbilisi late on September 3, has already met with the deputy foreign minister, Nikoloz Vashakidze, and the state minister for conflict resolution issues, Davit Bakradze.

Talks with President Saakashvili; Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze and Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli are also planned.

The discussion of the August 6 missile incident is expected to top the agenda at the meetings.

Before his departure for Tbilisi, Minister Moratinos met with his Georgian counterpart, Gela Bezhuashvili, in Brussels on September 3 on the sidelines of an international conference – “Working Together – Strengthening the European Neighborhood Policy.”

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office last month appointed Miomir Zuzul as his personal representative to look into the missile incident. Zuzul, an ex-Croatian foreign minister, visited both Tbilisi and Moscow and then briefed the OSCE Chairman about his fact-finding visits.

Tbilisi wants the OSCE Chairmanship to condemn, what it calls, Russian aggression on sovereign Georgian territory. Russia strongly denies any involvement in the August 6 incident and claims it was staged by Georgia to discredit Moscow.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)