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Eleventh Round of Geneva Talks

Negotiators will meet for eleventh time in Geneva on June 8 in frames of a format established following the 2008, August war with mediation of EU, OSCE and UN. 

Participants of the talks from Georgia, Russia, United States, as well as from breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia are taking part in the discussions in an individual capacity without identifying the entities they are representing – the format agreed since the second round in November, 2008 to avoid differences on the status of negotiators, in particular of representatives from the breakaway regions.

"The Georgian side will once again raise the issue of putting into place international security mechanisms, including international police and peacekeeping missions, in the occupied territories," Davit Jalagania, the Georgian deputy foreign minister, said on June 7.

Giga Bokeria, first deputy foreign minister, who leads the Georgian delegation, said Tbilisi would push for the release of those Georgians, which were detained during and after the August war and are still held in detention in Tskhinvali. By late March 2010, all Ossetians, who were detained by the Georgian police after the August, had been released.
 
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in its press release on June 4, that situation "on the borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with Georgia" would be among the issues planned to be discussed during the eleventh round of Geneva talks. Issues related with search of missing persons and release of detainees "based on mutually acceptable compromise options" will also be discussed, it said.

"It still remains the task of the Geneva Discussions to develop legally binding agreements on the non-use of force. The Russian side will continue its efforts toward this end," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

According to the report on South Ossetia released by Brussels-based think-tank, International Crisis Group, on June 7, for the eleventh round of Geneva meeting, Russia has put forward a new draft proposing “unilateral obligations on non-use of force”.

The draft offers signing by Tbilisi, Sokhumi and Tskhinvali separate letters, addressed to the president of the UN Security Council, stating unilateral non-use of force pledges, according to the report. Russia itself refuses to sign such document, as it does not consider itself party into the conflict.

Georgia has stated for number of times that although it is ready to sign non-use of force treaty or declaration, but only with Moscow and not with its, as Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze put it, "cronies” in Sokhumi and Tskhinvali.

“No problem, Georgia is ready to sign it with Russia anytime, anyplace,” Vashadze said on April 19. “But Russia does not want to sign that agreement; Russia wants us to sign it with representatives of those regimes in Sokhumi and Tskhinvali and this is out of question, because of two reasons; first: their [referring to authorities in the breakaway regions] signature do not have and will not have any legitimacy, they do not exist; second: if somehow we make this mistake and sign this agreement, not with the Russian Federation, but with so called states, then we are adding to their legitimacy and we are not prepared for that.”

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

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