Russia and Georgia to meet in Abkhazia for security talks (Roundup)

Jul 1, 2009, 17:04 GMT

Geneva - Russia and Georgia agreed to hold a security meeting in the disputed region of Abkhazia later this month, at talks in Geneva on Wednesday.

The two countries, who went to war in August 2008 over the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia concluded Wednesday the sixth round of ongoing negotiations, and also agreed to resume talks in the autumn.

The negotiations also included representatives from the two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The sides agreed to hold a first meeting of one of the so-called 'joint incident prevention and response mechanisms' in Gali, in the area under Abkhaz control, on July 14.

They also said the other mechanism for South Ossetia should meet soon as well, having met only twice since the system was created in February.

The next round of the negotiations would take place in Geneva on September 17.

The negotiations are chaired by the European Union, the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Both the UN and the OSCE have lost their mandates to operate missions in the region in recent days, following Russian vetoes in both organizations, leaving only the EU mission to continue monitoring work.

The OSCE mission's future was still under discussion in Vienna, where the organisation is based.

Russian officials have tied the missions to a greater role for the de facto governments in the breakaway territories.

Moscow recognized the regions as independent states after the August war, but has not managed to garner much international support for their new status. Russia and Georgia have broken off direct diplomatic ties, which are now handled through Switzerland.

The US has also participated in the talks, which first took place in October at the UN's Geneva office.

The talks have yielded few practical results. They are mainly aimed at reducing security incidents along the de-facto border areas and solving humanitarian issues.

On the second front, the chairs announced that there had been an agreement to carry out a joint assessment of the rehabilitation needs of the water supply system in the area.

Pierre Morel, the EU chair, admitted that the talks, as usual, had been 'difficult' at times.

Russia has also enraged Georgia this week by conducting military exercises in the Caucasus with some 8,500 troops, the largest such operation since the war.

However, Grigory Karasin, a Russian deputy foreign minister, told reporters after the talks that he expected that the 'summer should be quiet' in the region.