Georgian, Russian Negotiators Discuss S.Ossetia
Scrapping the current negotiating format will result in the withdrawal of the South Ossetian side from talks, Yuri Popov, the Russian chief negotiator on South Ossetia, warned on March 6.
He met with Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, in Tbilisi on March 6. Iakobashvili said after the talks that he had informed the Russian diplomat of Tbilisi’s intention to scrap the current quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) and replace it with a 2+2+2 formula, which would see Russia’s North Ossetia being replaced by the Tbilisi-backed South Ossetian provisional administration and the the inclusion of the OSCE and the EU.
“We think that the JCC should continue working,” Popov told reporters after the talks. “We believe that the commission can make decisions and if there is a willingness on the part of the parties, these decisions can be implemented. In our opinion, pushing this issue [changing the format] is untimely. The fact is if Sanakoev [head of the South Ossetian provisional administration] gets involved in the negotiating process, the South Ossetian side will automatically quit the negotiations and then all efforts will be pointless.”
Popov said on March 5 that official Georgian statements about abandoning the JCC were “lightweight and superficial.” Popov said the only way for Georgia to cease the operation of the JCC was to officially withdraw from the so-called “Dagomis accords” (also known as the Sochi agreement) concluded between Russia and Georgia in 1992. As the agreement does not set termination procedures, Popov said, “Georgia should first officially announce its decision to withdraw from the agreement and conduct negotiations on this issue with Russia, as a signatory to the agreement.”
Iakobashvili, however, later rejected the Russian diplomat’s reasoning, saying a withdrawal from the Sochi agreement was not required to replace the JCC with a new negotiating format. “We are not pulling out from any agreement and we are not talking about reputiating any agreements,” Iakobashvili told Civil.Ge. “It is possible to transform the JCC format into a new one within the framework of the Dagomis agreement.”