Azerbaijan, Baku, May 20 / Trend , E.Ostapenko/
The OSCE welcomes the steady progress made at the latest round of Geneva Discussions on Georgia which focused on discussing concrete security measures in the region and progress in the humanitarian issues with the all sides, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) released.
"A key element of this fifth round of Geneva Discussions was that participants began to discuss concrete security arrangements," said Ambassador Charalampos Christopoulos, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. "We are also moving forward on humanitarian questions, including on water, where the OSCE is playing a specific role."
The fifth round of the Geneva discussions on the situation in the Caucasus took place on May 18-19.
On May 16, Abkhazia refused to attend the Geneva discussions, basing on that the UN Secretary General's report on the situation in the Caucasus was not publicized by May 15, as it was earlier promised. Abkhazia linked its participation in this event with the UN approach to the status of the republic. On May 18, The South Ossetian delegation left the meeting taking place in Geneva.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian delegation took a break until May 19 in the consultations on the situation in the Caucasus, hoping to obtain new data on this issue from the UN Secretary General.
The two-day discussions took place in two parallel working groups; one looking at security and stability in the region and the other at humanitarian questions including internally displaced persons and refugees.
Christopoulos said he was happy the participants had agreed to a joint needs assessment team lead by an international expert under the auspices of the OSCE to look at the repair needs to guarantee water supplies.
Christopoulos and the other two co-chairs - Ambassador Johan Verbeke of the UN and Ambassador Pierre Morel of the EU - agreed with the participants that the next meeting would be in Geneva on 1 July.
The need for the Geneva discussions on the situation in the Caucasus aroused after the end of the war between Georgia and Russia due to break away of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia.
Large-scale military operations were launched in South Ossetia on the night of Aug. 8. Georgian troops entered South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali. Later Russian troops seized the town and drove troops back to Georgia. On Aug. 26, Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and established diplomatic relations with the territories on Sept. 9.
Meetings of the EU, OSCE, UN, Russian, US, Georgia, Abkhaz and South Ossetian representatives aims to quickly stabilize the situation in the region. The first three rounds of the discussions had not yielded any concrete results.
The fourth round of the Geneva consultations, which took place on February 17-18, was the most productive of all. For the first time, negotiators could coordinate the paper containing proposals for mechanisms to prevent and resolve incidents in Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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