June 19-20, 2018 saw the 44th round of the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in Transcaucasia. A delegation from the Republic of South Ossetia, headed by Murat Dzhioev, the Plenipotentiary of the President of the Republic of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement, delegations from the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Russian Federation and the USA as well as representatives of the EU, the UN and the OSCE took part in negotiations.

The discussions were held in two working groups: on security and humanitarian issues.

In the beginning of the discussions the South Ossetian participants submitted proposals on updating the agenda of the Discussions and increasing the productivity of the acting format in general.

The issue of guarantees for security and non-use of force in Georgian-South Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian relations remains the main subject for discussion in Working group I. South Ossetian representatives suggested admitting at the round a joint statement by all participants on commitment to the principle of non-use of force - an interim document, which wording was almost finalized in December 2017. Such a document would allow fixing the positions of each party and getting to the work on the main objective of the Discussions – development of bilateral international agreements on non-use of force within the framework of general security situation in Transcaucasia, which would have firm international guaranties for implementation. However, due to the non-constructivism of other participants, in particular, the Georgian and the American delegations, position of whom could only be taken as an inadmissible attempt to reconsider the format of the Geneva Discussions and to exterminate representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia of it, the work on the document wasn’t finished.

Representatives of South Ossetia and Abkhazia expressed a reasonable concern over the existing situation, which directly affects stability and security in the region, being related to another steps for Georgian integration with NATO and creation of infrastructural objects of the Alliance on territory of the state. The ongoing harmonization of Georgia with NATO at the background of persistent reluctance of Georgian party to undertake commitment to non-use of force against neighboring states - the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia, causes special concern.

Once again the South Ossetian delegates suggested Georgian party to get to joint works on delimitation and demarcation of the state border between the Republic of South Ossetia and Georgia that would eliminate numerous problems, related to absence of agreements on the border.

In general the participants of the Discussions positively assessed the activity of the IPRM as an efficient instrument for maintaining stability and security about the South Ossetian-Georgian border. The productivity of the “hot line” organized upon the Mechanism was emphasized as well.

The South Ossetian representatives informed the participants of the Discussions about recent important social and economic developments in South Ossetia, and once again emphasized the readiness of the South Ossetian authorities to build good-neighboring relations for the sake of strengthening peace and stability in the region.

As an essential part of general security and humanitarian situation, issues related to the search of citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia, kidnapped and lost in territory of Georgia, were discussed as well. It was emphasized that solution of this problem by Georgia could promote trust reconciliation at the Geneva Discussions.

Due to the fact that Georgia has once again submitted to the UN General Assembly the resolution on the issue of refugees, South Ossetian and Abkhazian participants of the Discussions considered it impossible to discuss the problem within the format. According to the distributed joint statement of South Ossetian and Abkhazian delegations, renewal of negotiations on this subject would become possible when Georgia gives up turning artificially the problem into a political issue.

During the discussion on cultural heritage, the South Ossetian participants has once again put on table the issue of returning to South Ossetia the unique icon-triptych, which had been stolen from South Ossetia museum and for the time being is in Georgia. Once again attention was drawn to the problem of preservation of those Ossetian historical-cultural monuments that are located on territory of Eastern Ossetia, which currently is under Georgian control. Once again the Ossetian representatives called for Georgian side to provide access to the historical territory of Ossetia (Tyrsygom), which currently is under Georgian control, being totally depopulated of the banishment of the Ossetian population, in order to examine and evaluate the conditions of monuments of Ossetian historical architectural heritage, located there.

The next meeting in Geneva is scheduled for October 2018.