Georgian FM: ‘Russia will Try to Kill Geneva Format’

Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said on March 2, that Russia would try “to kill” the Geneva talks with hand of “its proxy regimes” in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

During the fourth round of Geneva talks last month, the sides agreed on proposals for joint incident prevention and response mechanisms – a not self-executive document, implementation of which depends on good will of the parties on the ground.

“In Geneva the Russian Federation as if agrees on creation of these mechanisms, but afterwards it kills this document with the hands of people like Chochiev [South Ossetian negotiator at Geneva Talks] or Shamba [foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia],” he said.

Vashadze also said that Russia was “killing” UN and OSCE missions in Georgia and “the Russian Federation will try to kill the Geneva format;” he added that Tbilisi together with its allies would try “not to allow it happen.”

The next round of talks in Geneva are planned for spring, but an exact date has not been agreed by the sides during the fourth round of talks in February.

U.S. negotiator at the Geneva talks, Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of state, said that it was expected to discuss “principles of non use of force” and “how to establish new security mechanisms” during the next round of talks sometime in spring.

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