EUMM Head Meets Russian Officials in Moscow

Head of the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia, Kęstutis Jankauskas, visited Russia on September 15-16 with the purpose “to maintain working contacts in Moscow,” EUMM said.

Lithuanian diplomat, Kęstutis Jankauskas, who heads EUMM since December 2014, met in Moscow with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Chief of the Border Security Directorate of the Russian FSB Border Service Nikolay Kozik.

“Both meetings were held in a friendly, constructive and professional atmosphere,” EUMM said in a press release on September 16.

It was the first visit of EUMM head to Moscow since 2011. EUMM, which is mandated to monitor the compliance with the August, 2008 six-point ceasefire agreement, has around 200 unarmed monitors in Georgia; they, however, have no access to breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
 
“In line with the normalization, stabilization and the confidence building mandate of the Mission the main purpose of the visit to the Russian Federation was to maintain working contacts in Moscow and to address concerns of all sides in order to maintain stability and to prevent escalation of the situation on the ground,” EUMM said.
 
“The security situation on the ground in Georgia, along the Administrative Boundary Lines with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, was discussed in the framework of preparations for the next rounds of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting and the Geneva International Discussions. Issues of borderisation, freedom of movement, access of local population to agricultural land as well as military exercises were raised and discussed as were practical issues such as interaction in the field between security actors. Commitment of all sides to use the existing instruments such as the IPRM meetings and the Hotline was stressed in order to maintain stability and predictability on the ground,” EUMM said.

Co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions, talks launched after the August 2008 war, also visited Moscow this week. EU, OSCE and UN representatives, who co-chair the Geneva talks, met Deputy Foreign Minister Karasin, who is Russia’s chief negotiator in the Geneva talks. The next, 33rd round of the Geneva talks, which involves negotiators from Georgia, Russia and the U.S., as well as from Tskhinvali and Sokhumi, is scheduled for October 6-7.