The constructive meeting was co-facilitated by the Head of the European Monitoring Mission, Ambassador Andrzej Tyszkiewicz and the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office, currently the Lithuanian Ambassador Gedrius Cekuolis. There are two sets of IPRM meetings, one each for the Abkhazia and South Ossetia contexts, which were agreed at the Geneva talks in 2009 with the mandate to address the security situation on the ground.
The 31st IPRM meeting for the Abkhazia context also took place in Gali on 26 October. EUMM’s task is to facilitate dialogue between the parties and provide objective information on the situation on the ground, in order to reduce the possibility that incidents could spiral out of control. In doing so, this also contributes to the kind of overall confidence building that might help bring the possibility of resolution of the conflict a little closer.
The IPRM in the Abkhazia theatre is chaired by the UN co-chair to the Geneva talks, involving participants from Georgian and Russian security and goverment structures, Abkhaz de facto structures, and EUMM. The second IPRM in the South Ossetia theatre involves participants from Georgian and Russian security and government structures, South Oessetian de facto structures, and is co-facilitated by EUMM and the OSCE Chairmanship. In this way, the three co-chairs from the Geneva talks – EU, UN and OSCE – are appropriately represented in the IPRM meetings on the ground. Needless to say, EUMM works very closely with the EU co-chair at the Geneva talks, EUSR Ambassador Philip Lefort.
In Dvani last Friday, the participants discussed recent incidents and circumstances of detentions that took place at or close to the Administrative Boundary Line. Safety measures of agricultural workers in the adjacent areas were discussed in detail, as well as methods of facilitating freedom of movement. The participants also touched upon issues of a humanitarian nature, such as the implementation of water and gas projects in the region.