The regular meeting of Daur Kove, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia with Toivo Klaar, Cihan Sultanoglu, Rudolf Mikhalka, the Co-Chairs of the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in the Transcaucasia from the EU, UN and OSCE took place at the Foreign Ministry of Abkhazia on September 18,2019.

On the Abkhaz side, the meeting was attended by Irakli Tuzhba, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Arlan, the Deputy Chairman of the State Security Service of the Republic of Abkhazia as well as Lasha Avidzba and Arthur Gaguliya, the Abkhaz Foreign Ministry staff, the participants of the upcoming round of Geneva Discussions.

Daur Kove, the Foreign Minister of Abkhazia expressed concern on the situation on the border of South Ossetia with Georgia which escalated in late August due to the illegal placement of the Georgian checkpoint in the vicinity of the village of Tsnelis.

In turn, Toivo Klaar, the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus assured the participants of the meeting that the issue of South Ossetia will be in the focus of attention of the upcoming round.

“The control situation between South Ossetia and Georgia is alarming, however, both sides are aimed at de-escalating the situation. Of course, it is very important to move from peaceful statements to concrete actions and we are ready to provide the necessary assistance in solving this problem,” said Cihan Sultanoglu, the UN representative at the Geneva International Discussions.

Further, the participants of the meeting discussed in detail the humanitarian issues related to freedom of movement, environmental safety and other pressing issues of the upcoming round of the Geneva discussions.

Toivo Klaar emphasized during the conversation that everyone has a common goal - to make the meeting in Geneva as productive as possible.

The next 49-th round of the Geneva discussions on security and stability in the Caucasus is scheduled for October 8-9, 2019.