Diplomatic Efforts Continue over OSCE Mandate

Greece, which took over OSCE chairmanship from Finland starting from January 1, said it would continue efforts to find a compromise on continued presence of OSCE in Georgia.

“We intend to proceed with a swift and co-ordinated course of action to try and find a compromise arrangement that would allow the Organization to continue its activities throughout Georgia, in order to assist all efforts for the peaceful resolution of the crisis,” Greek Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyannis, the OSCE’s new Chairperson-in-Office, said in a statement on January 1.

In December Russia has blocked extension of the 16-year-old OSCE mission’s mandate in Georgia, as a result the mission is currently undertaking formal procedures for closure. The procedures are expecting to last for next few months – the period, which will be used by diplomats to find a compromise on the matter.

Russia wants not simply a separate field office of OSCE in Tskhinvali, but an independent OSCE mission in the breakaway region with initial duration of six months with possibility of further prolongation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on December 31 that the OSCE mission in Georgia with its current mandate had “exhausted” itself. It also said that the OSCE’s current mandate was “shot dead in August, 2008 by the Georgian artillery” and also by the Georgia’s decision to withdraw from the 1992 Sochi agreement (also known as the Dagomis agreement) between Russia and Georgia dealing with the South Ossetian conflict.

In the statement the Russian Foreign Ministry also said that it was ready for cooperation with the Greek chairmanship to find a solution to the new OSCE mandate in Georgia.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in response on January 1 saying that “the Russian side can never succeed to mislead the international community irrespective of how repeatedly it will try to assert its constructiveness.”

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