Irakli Tuzhba, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia met with the Co-chairs of the International Geneva Discussions on Security and Stability in the Transcaucasia - Toivo Klaar, the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Cihan Sultanoglu, the UN Representative and Rudolf Mikhalka, the OSCE Special Representative for the South Caucasus on November 25,2020.

The main topic of the meeting was the discussion of the agenda of the upcoming 51-st round of the International Geneva Discussions and the topical issues of the regional security and stability in the context of the ongoing pandemic of the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19.

Irakli Tuzhba, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia described the situation in the country as stable and once again expressed his gratitude to the international organizations that provide support in the fight against the spread of the new coronavirus infections on a regular basis as part of the discussion of the epidemiological situation in the republic, in connection with the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

In the context of the discussion of security issues, the Abkhaz side expressed concern on the ongoing process of militarization of Georgia, in particular, they talked on the ongoing exercises in the Georgia-NATO format, the recent visit to the Black Sea of the US Navy missile destroyer "Donald Cook" as well as a number of others circumstances that could negatively affect the situation in the region. Irakli Tuzhba called on the co-chairs to pay attention to these actions in order to avoid escalation of tensions in the South Caucasus.

Attention was also focused on humanitarian issues related to freedom of movement and other topical issues of the upcoming round of the Geneva Discussions.

The next 51-st round of the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in Transcaucasia is scheduled for December 10-11, 2020.