The 57th round of the Geneva International Discussions (GID) – the multilateral forum to address security and humanitarian consequences of the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008 – will be held in April 2023 instead of February 21-22.
“I can confirm on behalf of EU Special Representative Toivo Klaar that the Co-Chairs have announced to the participants of the GID that the next round, which was initially scheduled for February 2023, would have to be postponed to early April 2023 because of timing issues,” Henri Duquenne, Spokesperson for the EUSpecial Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia told Civil.ge
The “foreign minister” of Russia-occupied Abkhazia, Inal Ardzinba issued a statement on January 31, saying the 57 GID round was “unilaterally” canceled by the EU, UN, and OSCE. He said the decision is “partisan in nature” and “creates additional threats to stability and security.”
Noting that such cancellations “without any objective reasons and without agreement with the participants” occurred before Ardzinba said, “the Abkhazian side decided to refuse entry to the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia of the delegation of the Co-Chairs of the Geneva International Discussions, who planned to come on February 8-9 to meet with officials.”
EUSR spokesperson told Civil.ge “the Co-Chairs were and are still ready to undertake consultations with all participants both on the subject of the upcoming round, as well as on the GID process generally. Therefore, it is of course, disappointing that the Abkhaz participants did not consider such consultations useful at this time.”
Comment by the Official Representative of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs M. Zakharova
The Official Representative of Russian MFA noted in its statement that this is the second time in a row that 2022 Co-Chairs postpone a meeting, as a meeting planned for December last year was moved to February 2023. Russian side notes that taking this into account, the postponement of the February meeting seems to be “absolutely artificial” and assesses this decision, “taken without preliminary consultations with all delegations as the continuation of the destructive course of the westerners aimed at blocking the work of GID”. The statement goes on to state that taking the above into account, the Russian side considered it unacceptable to hold a meeting with Co-Chairs planned for February 3. The statement also notes that “westerners trips” cannot and will not substitute the full-fledged functioning of the Geneva format. “Abkhaz and South Ossetian allies fully agree with Russian assessments”, – concludes the statement.
Note: This article was altered on 3 December at 13:47 to reflect comment by M. Zakharova
Civil. ge contacted the MFA of Georgia for further information and will update this article with their comment.
Also Read:
- 06/10/2022 – 56th Round of Geneva International Discussions
-
-
-
-
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)