Moscow, Sukhumi and Tskhinvali are seeking participants’ agreement to move the Geneva International Discussions on security and stability in the South Caucasus to another venue. A Russian Foreign Ministry official said Moscow considers Switzerland no longer neutral.
Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are seeking consensus on moving the regular rounds of the Geneva International Discussions on Security and Stability in the South Caucasus to another location, Russian Foreign Ministry official Mikhail Kalugin told RIA Novosti.
Kalugin said Moscow views Switzerland as having lost its neutrality, citing Bern’s participation in European Union sanctions against Russia. That is the Russian side’s stated rationale; RIA attributed the account of efforts to change the venue to the Foreign Ministry official.
According to Kalugin, the talks remain the only negotiating platform addressing post-conflict relations between Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow is seeking a location it considers genuinely neutral and acceptable to all participants.
He identified legally binding guarantees not to use force and the delimitation, followed by demarcation, of the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-South Ossetian boundaries among the issues under discussion.
The talks have been held in Geneva since 2008, with Georgia, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the United States participating under the mediation of the United Nations, European Union and OSCE. Work is conducted in two groups, covering security and humanitarian issues.