OSCE Chair: S.Ossetian Negotiating Format not Conducive to Conflict Resolution

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, said on May 30 it was time to look into possibilities for a new negotiating format for resolving the South Ossetian conflict.

“I am concerned that the existing negotiating format in the South Ossetian conflict has not been conducive to the resolution of the conflict. It is time to explore possibilities for a new negotiating format that would be acceptable to the parties to the conflict,” the Finnish Foreign Minister said after meeting with his Georgian counterpart, Eka Tkeshelashvili, in Helsinki.

These remarks by the Finnish Foreign Minister, who holds the rotating chairmanship of the OSCE, are in contrast to his previous statement on the same matter made in April, 2008, when he expressed his support for the existing negotiation mechanisms and “regretted that they have not been fully utilized.” “I encourage the parties to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict to return to the negotiation table in the format agreed by all parties,” he said on April 17.

Tbilisi wants to scrap the current Russian-dominated negotiating mechanism for South Ossetia – the 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 inclusion of the OSCE and the EU. The move is opposed by Moscow and Tskhinvali.