Georgian President, OSCE Chief Discuss South Ossetia

The OSCE’s Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili discussed the situation in breakaway South Ossetia during a phone conversation held on July 14. 

The idea of a possible enhanced OSCE presence in the zone of conflict was also discussed, according to the OSCE Press and Public Information Section.
 
The OSCE Chairman-in-Office is following the situation in the conflict zone ?very closely? and has held consultations by phone in the past week with Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov.

The South Ossetian issue was also high on the agenda at meetings of the OSCE and EU Ministerial Troikas in Brussels on 12 July and the OSCE Troika – comprised of the foreign ministers of Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Slovenia – on July 13.

The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Ivan Naydenov, is presently participating a meeting of the Joint Control Comission in Moscow which is focusing on the settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

In Wednesday’s talks, President Saakashvili and Minister Passy both stressed the urgent need for measures to be taken in order to defuse current tensions in South Ossetia and to ensure the continuation of the settlement process. “We reaffirmed the need to find a solution by purely peaceful means,” the Chairman-in-Office said.

In a statement issued on July 10, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of ?inactivity? and ?biased assessment of the reasons of escalating tensions? in the breakaway South Ossetia.

The OSCE has been a very actively involved international institution in the aspect of conflict settlement in South Ossetia since the early 90s.

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