Daur Kove: there is no administrative border along the Ingur River, there is a state border

Regular consultations in the framework of international discussions on the Transcaucasia were held in Geneva.

Sukhum. March 29. Apsnypress. Regular consultations in the framework of international discussions on Transcaucasia were held in Geneva, representatives of the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia, the Republic of South Ossetia, the Russian Federation and the United States participated in the co-chairmanship of the UN, OSCE and the EU. The delegation of the Republic of Abkhazia was headed by Foreign Minister Daur Kove. 

 The message says that before the consultations, all the participants of the international Geneva discussions expressed condolences to the representatives of the Russian Federation in connection with the tragic death of citizens in fire in Kemerovo.

 The main requirement of the Abkhaz side at the 43rd round of the Geneva discussions was still the adoption of a joint oral statement on the parties' commitment to non-use of force, which would serve as an important step towards the signing of a legally binding Agreement on the non-use of force between Georgia and Abkhazia and Georgia and South Ossetia . However, the oral statement of the parties was never accepted, because this time the American language was unacceptable, returning the old theses about the nature of the August 2008 events.

 In turn, the representatives of the Georgian delegation tried to shift the discussion of the main issue by putting the case of the death of Georgian citizen A. Tatunashvili at the center of the debate, accusing  not only South Ossetia, but also Russia. Also they continued to insist that Abkhazia is an "occupied territory" and is not a party to the conflict, and it is Russia that should not commit to using force.

 At the same time, Daur Kove outlined the position of the Abkhaz side regarding the presence of Russian troops on the territory of the republic. According to him, in a situation where the parties can not come to the adoption of even an oral joint statement on the non-use of force, and at the same time the Georgian side is making great efforts to enter into a perspective in NATO, military cooperation with Russia exists and will be built up. "There is nothing surprising in the fact that Abkhazia continues to actively cooperate with the Russian Federation, based on bilateral agreements on all norms of international law, and which is the only ally that ensures our security," - Kove said.  

   During the talks, issues of illegal crossing of the state border of the Republic of Abkhazia along the Ingur River were also raised. The minister once again drew attention of the co-chairs to the need to create conditions for them, in which the Georgian authorities or representatives of international organizations would inform the residents of the Georgian border region with Abkhazia about the procedure for the transition of the state border. "This will make it possible in the future to avoid incidents involving illegal crossing of the state border by foreign citizens", - he added. 

   Daur Kove called on the co-chairs of the Geneva discussions to take a more responsible attitude to the formulations and abbreviations that they use to formulate the reports. "There is no administrative border along the Ingur River. There is a state border, " - the minister reminded.
  
 Deputy Chairman of the Abkhazian SSS Vladimir Arlan also informed about some issues related to security that are raised, including within the framework of the MPRI. In particular, he noted that the results of arrangement of the state border had a positive impact on security issues. "If you look at the statistics for the past 9 years after the servicemen of the border department of the FSB of Russia joined the protection of the state border, serious crimes such as kidnapping, robbery and terrorist attacks grew less," - Arlan stressed.

 In the second working group the participants discussed a number of humanitarian tasks, including the sphere of environmental security, preservation of cultural heritage, search for missing persons, as well as education issues.

 The next meeting in Geneva is scheduled for June 2018.