49th round of Geneva Discussions ends without results
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Thursday, October 10
The 49th round of the internationally mediated Geneva Discussions was held yesterday. The issues to be discussed at the 49th round of Geneva International Discussions were finalized and agreed at a technical meeting one day ahead of the talks at the UN building on October 8.
As Lasha Darsalia, Deputy Foreign Minister and Head of the Georgian delegation at the negotiations told journalists, the next round would be tough with acute issues.
“Besides non-fulfillment of the 6-point ceasefire agreement, the issues will include the developments across occupied territories and occupational line. This will be illegal borderization and detentions as well as the latest events that turned the tense situation tenser,” Darsalia announced.
At the 49th round of Geneva Discussions, the Russian delegation was headed by Andrei Rudenko, new Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation who replaced Gregory Karasin on the post and got engaged in the format of the internationally mediated Geneva talks for the first time.
Rudenko said that Geneva Discussions have resembled running around the closed circle lately and that he wished to make a push. “We want to keep hope that we will manage to do something at least concerning de-escalation of the situation in the ‘borderline,’” he said.
According to Rudenko, Geneva Discussions serve as an important floor to talk about security issues in the region. He also claimed that he wanted to determine where reaching of compromises was possible.
However, the 49th round of the Geneva International Discussions has failed. According to Lasha Darsalia, as it usually happens, as soon as the talks about the return of refugees began, the Russian delegation left the negotiations.
Head of the Georgian delegation announced that o agreement was reached on specific issues. “There were no high expectations in advance and there have been no breakthroughs on fundamental issues. It is in everyone's interest to de-escalate and ease the situation. There were some ideas from the co-chairs. We will discuss this and return to this topic in the next round. What steps should be taken to gradually de-escalate the situation,” Darsalia commented.
Russia's chief representative to the Geneva talks, Andrei Rudenko, says Russia has nothing to do: There is no conflict for us, the conflict closed after Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told reporters in Geneva.
As Rudenko noted, "At the Geneva talks on the situation in the Georgian-South Ossetian border region, all sides expressed their readiness to immediately escalate the tensions created in late August to early September."
He said no one is interested in finding a new hub of tension in the area. According to him, for Russia, there is no conflict.
“You are well aware of the position of the Russian Federation. There is no conflict for Russia. The conflict closed after Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. We are now talking about security in the region so that such conflicts do not happen again. I will repeat it again. There is no conflict for us and no occupation. We welcome the creation of two independent states in 2008 that have signed a cooperation agreement with the Russian Federation, including the military one, "commented Russian official.
Rudenko also expressed hope that lowering the level of general tension will be followed by solving the issue of points and the ones that have been closed will re-open. He also commented that the issue of restoring flights has not been discussed at the 49th round of Geneva talks, explaining that these are different matters: “The situation in the region is one and the bilateral relations are the other. Out Minister Sergey Lavrov said everything after this meeting. Relations should be normalized and returned to at least the situation that was in June-July. Russia doesn’t owe anything to anyone," said Rudenko.
The next round of negotiations will take place on December 2019
The situation in the occupied Tskhinvali region has been tense since late August. Due to the opening of a Georgian police checkpoint near the village of Chorchana in Khashuri municipality, occupying forces placed the “border checkpoint” near the occupied village of Tsneli, in the territory controlled by the central authorities. Also, the Tskhinvali de-facto government has closed the so-called border with the rest of Georgia, which led to the isolation of the population of the occupied of Akhalgori. Earlier, the occupation forces marked the “border” in the village Gugutiantkari.
