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Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union

Submitted on 2017-09-26 15:34:16

Press release on Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin’s meeting with the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions on the South Caucasus

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On September 26, State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met with co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in the South Caucasus: UN Representative Antti Turunen and Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus Gunther Bachler.

The officials exchanged views on security in the South Caucasus, the situation on Abkhazia’s and South Ossetia’s borders with Georgia and the preparations for the new round of talks in Geneva, scheduled for October 10-11.

Mr Karasin warned the meeting participants about the danger of NATO’s increasingly active role in the region. The alliance’s military infrastructure is expanding in Georgia, military exercises are held regularly, with their scale increasing every year, and NATO standards for the armed forces and their management are being introduced. This poses a serious threat of destabilisation in the South Caucasus and to the security of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia. The need to reach legally bounding agreements on the non-use of force between Sukhum and Tshinval on one side and Tbilisi on the other is becoming more acute in this context.

The participants reaffirmed their shared commitment to actively promote depoliticising the work conducted in the Geneva format to reach tangible results, primarily in regional security.

The officials stressed the importance of effective mechanisms to prevent incidents in the region.