Azerbaijan, Baku, July 22 / Trend /
Participants in the Geneva Discussions must do their part to make the talks effective as the Discussions remain the only forum where all parties to the August 2008 conflict are represented, Ambassador Giedrius Čekuolis, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for protracted conflicts, said today, OSCE reported.
Čekuolis co-chairs the Geneva Discussions together with Ambassador Antti Turunen of the UN and Ambassador Pierre Morel of the EU. The three addressed a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council today.
"These people want to see progress, want to see tangible deliverables," Čekuolis said.
"The responsibility for giving the Geneva process direction does not lie exclusively with the Co-Chairs. It is a shared commitment by all participants. We can only make progress if all of us, collectively, agree to do so."
The three Co-Chairs have called on all participants to consolidate progress made regarding non-use of force by also engaging on the issue of international security arrangements, as well as by supporting a number of practical confidence-building measures.
Morel underlined the need for continued efforts toward a transitional security regime by building on existing practice and consolidated commitments by the participants.
Čekuolis said the Lithuanian OSCE Chairmanship was considering how the OSCE could broaden its work to address humanitarian issues on the ground.
The Geneva talks were convened after an armed conflict in Georgia in August 2008, in accordance with the Ceasefire Agreement of August 12.
Military actions were launched in the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia in August 2008. Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia and later Russian troops occupied the city and drove the Georgian military back to Georgia. Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Aug. 26 and established diplomatic relations with them on Sept. 9, 2008.