The regular meeting of Daur Kove, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia with Antti Turunen, Gunter Bechler and Bjorn Kuene, the Co-Chairs of the Geneva discussions on security and stability in the Caucasus took place in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia.
Irakli Tuzhba, Lasha Avidzba, Artur Gagulia and Asta Chukbar, as part of the staff of the MFA of Abkhazia took part from Abkhaz side from.
Daur Kove in his welcoming speech noted that the events in the region associated with military exercises cause very serious concern. "Two large exercises have been held in Georgia over the past three months amid the fact that the Georgian side still refuses to sign an agreement on the non-use of force. We are very seriously concerned and we hope that at the upcoming round we will be able to adopt the joint oral statement and the role of the Co-chairmen in this matter is very high," he said.
Speaking on the humanitarian component of the Geneva format the head of the Abkhazian Foreign Ministry stressed that on some issues in the second working group there are results. "The problems of ecology are of the regional nature and these are the problems of the entire population living in the region. We are ready for this round and we hope for fruitful work and we express hope that the 41st round will be marked by progress in our discussions and joint work," he stressed.
Antti Turunen, the Co-chairman of the Geneva discussions from the UN in his turn expressed the hope that the Geneva discussions will be able to achieve their main task which is to prevent conflict on the ground. "We take into account that on the large scale quite active military exercises are taking place in the region and this certainly poses certain security risks and leads to the fact that the main task that is on the Geneva discussions becomes even more urgent."
"The Geneva format is a very flexible format that allows discussing a wide range of issues, humanitarian issues related to education with documentation of everyday problems of the local population. And we hope that we will be able to develop aspects of humanitarian issues, more deeply without endangering the basic format of the Geneva discussions and using the potential that exists in the Geneva format," he added.
Gunter Baechler, the Co-chairman of the Geneva discussions from the OSCE noted that all the participants in the meeting want to see the continuation of the Geneva discussions and it is undesirable for stagnation to take place in the event as it happened during the June meeting in the framework of the Geneva discussions.
Bjorn Kuene, the political adviser of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus informed Daur Kove that the process is underway to appoint the new person to the post of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus formerly occupied by Herbert Zalber.
The parties discussed in detail the agenda for the forthcoming 41st round in particular the need to develop a joint statement on the non-use of force which would serve as an important step towards signing a legally binding agreement on the non-use of force between Georgia and Abkhazia and Georgia and South Ossetia as the main the objectives of the Geneva discussions. The issues of the second working group were discussed in detail namely the issues of environmental safety, in particular it was a marmorated stink bug that causes great harm to the environment and carries the very serious environmental threat.
The sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest.
The next 41st round of the Geneva discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia is scheduled for October 10-11, 2017.
Irakli Tuzhba, Lasha Avidzba, Artur Gagulia and Asta Chukbar, as part of the staff of the MFA of Abkhazia took part from Abkhaz side from.
Daur Kove in his welcoming speech noted that the events in the region associated with military exercises cause very serious concern. "Two large exercises have been held in Georgia over the past three months amid the fact that the Georgian side still refuses to sign an agreement on the non-use of force. We are very seriously concerned and we hope that at the upcoming round we will be able to adopt the joint oral statement and the role of the Co-chairmen in this matter is very high," he said.
Speaking on the humanitarian component of the Geneva format the head of the Abkhazian Foreign Ministry stressed that on some issues in the second working group there are results. "The problems of ecology are of the regional nature and these are the problems of the entire population living in the region. We are ready for this round and we hope for fruitful work and we express hope that the 41st round will be marked by progress in our discussions and joint work," he stressed.
Antti Turunen, the Co-chairman of the Geneva discussions from the UN in his turn expressed the hope that the Geneva discussions will be able to achieve their main task which is to prevent conflict on the ground. "We take into account that on the large scale quite active military exercises are taking place in the region and this certainly poses certain security risks and leads to the fact that the main task that is on the Geneva discussions becomes even more urgent."
"The Geneva format is a very flexible format that allows discussing a wide range of issues, humanitarian issues related to education with documentation of everyday problems of the local population. And we hope that we will be able to develop aspects of humanitarian issues, more deeply without endangering the basic format of the Geneva discussions and using the potential that exists in the Geneva format," he added.
Gunter Baechler, the Co-chairman of the Geneva discussions from the OSCE noted that all the participants in the meeting want to see the continuation of the Geneva discussions and it is undesirable for stagnation to take place in the event as it happened during the June meeting in the framework of the Geneva discussions.
Bjorn Kuene, the political adviser of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus informed Daur Kove that the process is underway to appoint the new person to the post of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus formerly occupied by Herbert Zalber.
The parties discussed in detail the agenda for the forthcoming 41st round in particular the need to develop a joint statement on the non-use of force which would serve as an important step towards signing a legally binding agreement on the non-use of force between Georgia and Abkhazia and Georgia and South Ossetia as the main the objectives of the Geneva discussions. The issues of the second working group were discussed in detail namely the issues of environmental safety, in particular it was a marmorated stink bug that causes great harm to the environment and carries the very serious environmental threat.
The sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest.
The next 41st round of the Geneva discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia is scheduled for October 10-11, 2017.
