Sides Agree on Terms of Routine Security Talks

The Georgian and Abkhaz sides, as well as Russian military commanders on the ground agreed to hold UN and EU-facilitated meetings once every two weeks.

The first meeting in frames of incident prevention mechanisms, agreed in Geneva talks in February, was held on July 14 in Gali, a town in breakaway Abkhazia predominantly populated by ethnic Georgians.

Shota Utiashvili, head of the information and analytical department at the Georgian Interior Ministry, said after the meeting that sides agreed on “technical, procedural issues.”

He told Civil.Ge that it was also agreed that UN representatives would chair these regular meetings.

Two similar meetings in frames of incident prevention mechanisms were held in case of Georgia’s second breakaway region South Ossetia. But the South Ossetian side, citing among other issues, disagreements over chairmanship issue, is now refusing to participate.

Abkhaz side was represented at the meeting by Ruslan Kishmaria, the Abkhaz leader’s special envoy for the Gali district; Maxim Gvinjia, deputy foreign minister and Garry Kupalba, deputy defense minister.

UN said the meeting was “productive”. It said in a statement that the sides, which discussed modalities of the future meetings, agreed on all issues except one.

“There was agreement on the periodicity of meetings, on the format of the meetings, on the working languages of the meetings, on the way summary conclusions of meetings will be drawn and the agenda will be set, on the chairmanship of the next meetings, and on the practical set-up of the ‘hotline’.  The only issue that will be further discussed at the next meeting is the locations where the meetings should be convened,” UN said.

It was agreed that the next meeting will be held in Gali on July 28.

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